10,000 students have tried drugs: Official

JAKARTA (JP): At least 10,000 junior and senior high school students in the city are believed to have experimented with drugs, particularly shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), an official said on Tuesday.

The number represents 0.5 percent of the city's total 1.8 million students at the 2,000 state and private high schools in Jakarta.

"In each of the schools, there are between five and eight students who have reportedly used drugs. Most of them consumed shabu-shabu," Adang Ruchiat, head of the youth supervisory department of the city office of the Ministry of Education and Culture, said on the sidelines of a seminar on drugs.

He said the percentage of students who experimented with drugs was small compared to the total number of students.

The estimate was based on reports collected from the schools' principals by the ministry's office recently.

"But most of the students just used the drugs once or twice. Only a few of them have become addicted to drugs," he said.

At least 100 drug-addicted high school students have been expelled or withdrawn from their schools so far this year, he said.

Conservative

However, a noted psychiatrist from the University of Indonesia, Dadang Hawari, believed Adang's estimate was overly conservative.

"I'm sure that the number is 10 times higher," said Dadang, who also attended the meeting.

He regretted the comments of many parties, especially government officials, who based their conclusions on percentages to gloss over the realities of the situation.

"It's already a red alert. We can't say that the number of students consuming drugs is still small anymore," Dadang insisted.

Adang said about 20 percent of the students believed to have tried drugs were from affluent families living in the upscale residential areas of South Jakarta.

Dadang also said that many of his patients were from South Jakarta.

He suggested parents whose children were already addicted to drugs should undergo treatment.

Patients could also enroll in an in-home special treatment for a cost of Rp 300,000 (US$42) each, he added.

Many parents of drug victims have complained that the price of drug treatment programs in hospitals could reach between Rp 2 million and Rp 8 million per patient. (jun)