Drug pushers mixing drugs with dog pills

JAKARTA (JP): Drugs distributed among several elementary school students reportedly contained chemical substances from dog medication, a senior city official said on Tuesday.

The official, who asked for anonymity, refused to elaborate but told reporters to seek details from the head of the city's education and teaching agency, Masrul Nim.

"Masrul told a meeting (today) that traffickers mixed the drugs with medicine for dogs," the official said.

Masrul denied addressing the subject of drugs or drug trafficking during the meeting at City Hall on Tuesday.

"There was no conversation about drugs," he said before leaving reporters.

Meanwhile, head of the city office of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Alwi Nurdin, said that his office found four students consuming drugs at an elementary school in Rawamangun subdistrict, East Jakarta.

"The students said they always suffered headaches after consuming the drugs given by an unidentified woman," Alwi said after the meeting.

He suspected the woman was the same drug pusher who operated in elementary schools in Tanah Abang district and a junior high school in Cikini district, both in Central Jakarta.

According to Alwi's subordinate, Adang Ruhiat, the office also identified a junior high school and four senior high schools in the city with student drug addicts.

The schools, Adang added, were located in East, Central and South Jakarta but he refused to identify them.

Some of the students are undergoing treatment at a hospital for drug dependency in South Jakarta.

He said the city administration was trying to eradicate the spread of drugs, particularly sedatives, through establishing antidrug youth forums, which now consisted of 250 students throughout the city. It is also cooperating with security personnel in conducting raids to search students for drugs.

Governor Sutiyoso declared war against drug traffickers last week and announced the administration planned a massive TV campaign to warn young people about the dangers of drug use.

Politics

On Saturday, a sociologist and a criminologist said that the massive spread of drugs in the capital over the past few months was politically rather than socially motivated.

Sociologist Paulus Wirutomo and criminologist Purnianti told The Jakarta Post separately that their conclusions are based on the fact that drug traffickers had been able to sell sedatives to elementary school students.

But both experts from the University of Indonesia refused to name any groups behind the plot, and said they also still could not identify the aim of the mission.

Paulus and Purnianti said only that the alleged involvement of several high-ranking government officials in the drug trafficking was further evidence that there were political interests in the apparently expanding business.

Paulus said it was now clear that certain parties wished to disturb the people's lives.

"So that they can reach their political goals ... but I'm not the right person to point this out," he added.

In the past, Paulus said, drug traffickers focused their sales only on people who were willing to consume the drugs.

Now they attempt to broaden their market by manipulating the sedative materials into various forms, such as candy or "smart pills", he said.

"It will of course not be easy for us to halt such attacks."

Arrests for drug-related crimes and the seizures of huge amounts of heroin, marijuana and other drugs have made media headlines over the past few months.

According to Purnianti, the real number cases could actually be double those reported in the media.

"I am also confident that the figure will be much bigger this year," she said.

City residents were surprised recently by reports that forbidden drugs had also been consumed by elementary school students, who got them from a woman selling candies and pills she claimed would make them smarter.

Police also confirmed that traffickers have begun recruiting young girls as smugglers and dealers.

The reports also showed that the drug trafficking network involved some high-ranking government officials.

Paulus said he could not understand that until now there has been no serious action taken by the central government.

"The case has been right in front of their eyes but there has been no real action so far," he said.

He said several measures taken by the police were inadequate.

Both Paulus and Purnianti agreed that one solution was that employed by residents of Pulogadung districts in East Jakarta, which involved all community members in a massive anti-drug program. (jun/ind)