Drug war hones in on the healthy

Abdul Khalik and Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bogor

The Office of the State Minister for Youth and Sports Affairs will cooperate with the Jakarta Police to hold antidrug training programs aimed at young people and athletes in the capital.

State Minister Adhyaksa Dault, who met with the city police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani at police headquarters on Tuesday, said after the meeting his office and the police had agreed on the details of a program to educate young people and athletes about the dangers of drugs.

"My office will focus on training and educational programs while the police will focus on law enforcement. We will teach as many young people, students and athletes in Jakarta as we can to help them avoid drugs," he said.

Adhyaksa said the war on drugs had become urgent as the number of drug cases in Jakarta involving young people had steadily risen over the last several years.

He said recent data showed there were about 2.9 million drug users in Jakarta, with most of them under the age of 20.

Although Adhyaksa said he had not allocated any funds from the state budget for the antidrug campaign, he said the money would be ready when needed.

"We will ask government and private institutions to take part in financing the campaign. For instance, I have talked with the state minister for state enterprises about approaching state enterprises to provide funds for our programs," he said.

Adhyaksa said his office would focus on athletes and former athletes to steer them away from drugs.

"We will ask state enterprises to provide one or two jobs for athletes each year. We have 120 state enterprises so each year lots of athletes would receive steady jobs. Athletes should have more options than working as security guards at nightclubs when they retire," he said.

He said his office had drafted a law on sports that would allow it to provide pensions for retired athletes.

"We hope to have a law on sports by September. This will guarantee athletes a better future," he said.

Indonesia's first world champion boxer, Ellias Pical, was arrested two weeks ago for drug dealing. He is now in police detention.

Many critics have accused Indonesia of neglecting its athletes once they retire and no longer serve a use for the country.

"We will try to help Ellias Pical by asking the police to bring the case to court as soon as possible. We will also provide him a lawyer. After all, he is our first world champion boxer," he said.

Meanwhile, the Bogor regency has established a Regency Narcotics Body (BNK) to lead the campaign against drugs in the regency.

"We will cooperate with the police to introduce special programs suitable for Bogor. We will combine the existing Anti- Narcotics Brigade into the BNK," said Bogor regency secretary Perry Soeparman, who was inaugurated on Tuesday as the head of the BNK.