'Inaccurate news could worsen drug problems'

'Inaccurate news could worsen drug problems'

JAKARTA (JP): An international conference on the prevention
of drug and substance abuse opened here yesterday with President
Soeharto warning that inaccurate media reporting could worsen the
country's drug problems.

"We count on the mass media to participate in the eradication
of drug and other addictive substance abuse," Soeharto said at
the start of the five-day International Federation of Non-
Governmental Organizations (IFNGO) conference, at Hotel
Indonesia.

He said that journalists themselves have drawn up a set of
"ethics" for reporting on the issue.

"We need to be aware that incorrect reporting on narcotics
could be misconstrued as a sort of drug promotion," he said.

Soeharto said Indonesia's almost 200 million citizens, spread
over thousands of islands, were vulnerable to drugs and
globalization could add to "the increased flow of narcotics and
other addictive substances in our countries."

The IFNGO conference brings together 516 participant
governments and NGO delegates from 32 countries.

The Indonesian House of Representatives recently passed a bill
ratifying a United Nations convention on psychotropic drugs.

The government has submitted a bill on psychotropic drugs to
the House of Representatives in an attempt to curb the growing
trade of rave stimulant Ecstasy. However, all factions in the
House of Representatives have expressed doubts that the maximum
punishment proposed in the bill is sufficient to deter
violations.

The Indonesian Democratic Party questioned the proposed
maximum penalty which is less than the maximum penalty of death
under the 1976 narcotics law. They argue that the abuse of
certain psychotropic substances is often more damaging than
narcotic abuse, so sanctions should be stiffer.

Minister of Health Sujudi in the first reading of the bill on
Sept. 5 said the minimum penalty in the psychotropic drug bill
should be more than the minimum penalty for general drug abuse,
as outlined in the 1992 Health Law, which is 15 years.

This year Indonesian police narcotics squads and customs
officials have arrested traffickers smuggling more than one
million Ecstasy pills, many of which come from other Southeast
Asian countries and The Netherlands.

The authorities are currently dealing with several
controversial cases of Ecstasy trafficking and abuse. The most
prominent one involves television actress, Zarina, who escaped
from police guards in Jakarta in August after being caught for
the possession of almost 30,000 Ecstasy pills, and who was
recaptured in Houston, Texas, last month.

Soeharto called for special attention to be given to the drug
problems among young people. "We have seen the deplorable results
of narcotics abuse. Those who are addicted are people who have
lost their dignity as human beings," he said.

"If there are many young people addicted to narcotics and
dangerous substances, then it will lead to social instability and
endanger human resource development," he said.

Soeharto declared war against drug abuse and called for
concerted, organized efforts between countries and agencies to
fight the organized drug rings which prey mostly on young people.

The trafficking of narcotics and other addictive
substances..is a danger to the communities, civilization and
humanity, all countries in the world have to solidify cooperation
to eradicate the abuse," he said.

"We have to close the movement space of traffickers of
dangerous substances by exchanging information and strengthening
cooperation in all fields, whether in prevention, in legal
enforcement or in research," he said.

Soeharto expressed gratitude for the IFNGO Award conferred
upon his late wife, Mrs. Tien Soeharto, for her work in the anti-
drug campaign directed at young people.

"Hopefully, the award will remind me and my family to continue
with the work she initiated to save young people, and toward
creating a world free of narcotics, psychotropic and other
addictive substance abuse," he said. (swe)