More trouble ahead as drug menace takes hold

More trouble ahead as drug menace takes hold

Drugs and alcohol have caused much trouble for many families,
and the problem is apparently becoming more serious, as reflected
by the increasing number of addicts. Joyce and David Djaelani
Gordon, both AIDS and addiction consultants, wrote the articles
on this page for The Jakarta Post.

JAKARTA (JP): The drug problem is here in Indonesia. And more
people are beginning to realize that this problem will not simply
go away by ignoring it. Neither will denial help the situation.

Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction have already damaged the
lives of many thousands of families. More and more families are
beginning to have close encounters with the "nightmare of the
addiction kind". They are beginning to experience the trail of
damage addiction creates. All of a sudden, the problem of
addiction is becoming very real. Voices of desperation,
heartbreak and concern are becoming a common cry in Indonesia
today.

In his World Anti-Drugs Day 1999 keynote address at the State
Palace late last month, President Habibie warned, "Indonesia is
no longer a transit point for drugs. It has become a market as
well as producer of some drugs." Declaring a battle against
drugs, Habibie added, "dealers are especially targeting young
people, causing drug abuse to spread rapidly among the young.
This situation does not seem to be the least affected by economic
and political crises."

Drugs are becoming very easy to find nowadays, if you know
where and what to look for.

Lenny, 26, has an active nightlife, living it up in bars and
discotheques. Although she says she is not an addict, she has had
frequent encounters with drug pushers.

"They'd come to our table, casually sit with us like they know
us, and tell us they have some stuff for us if we want it. They
were willing to give us free samples. I never dared to take the
offer though. I only drink," she said casually.

"One of their tricks is to get you to use it, then to like it,
and eventually, you will have to buy it from them," added Lenny,
who comes from a well-to-do family.

You can find drugs in many bars and discotheques throughout
Jakarta. The most popular drugs used in these settings are cimenk
(marijuana) and ineks (ecstasy). Cimenk is normally sold for Rp
100,000 per envelope. Prices of locally made ecstasy may vary
from Rp 30,000 to Rp 70,000 per tablet. The better the ecstasy,
the more expensive. Imported ones may fetch up to Rp 150,000 per
tablet, and are usually targeted for the more affluent crowd.

Students also report that there are many pushers who haunt
school and university grounds as well, just waiting for young
students to walk out from schools. Some pushers even sell "hard
drugs" in canteens and toilets.

Budi, 17, a student from a private school in South Jakarta,
said, "Pushers also often sell drugs posing as 'street vendors',
taping the drugs under mineral water bottles. You take the
bottle, pay for your drink and drugs, and simply walk away."

"Many teenagers also use drugs prior to student brawls, to
quash their fear. Under the influence of drugs, they don't even
fear the police," he added.

The areas of Baturaja, Tanah Abang to Kampung Bali, and Jl.
Jaksa are dubbed by addicts as the "Golden Triangle" for the
putauw (low-grade heroin) market. However, sales are not limited
to this Golden Triangle, neither is putauw the only drug sold in
these areas. Delivery orders can also be made. Jatinegara,
Cipinang, Gudang Peluru and Senayan are other areas where users
declare you can easily buy drugs. Generally, a gram of putauw
costs about Rp 150,000 to Rp 300,000, depending on quality. The
same goes for a gram of shabu-shabu (methampethamine). These
drugs also come in small affordable packages of Rp 20,000 to Rp
40,000, which is enough for novices to get high on, and share a
little with others.

Peppy, 27, a recovered addict, said he used 0.5 gram a day.
You can easily calculate how much he had to spend for his drug
habit per month. He used to inhale (drag, chase the dragon)
putauw, but then turned to injecting because it creates better
highs, on smaller amounts of drugs, wasting less.

The fact that drugs are easily available and also affordable,
is enough to send parents worrying that their children's pocket
money will be used to buy drugs. They should! Pills like nipam
(barbiturate) only cost Rp 2,500 to Rp 3,000 a strip, and many
young people pop Nipam like they would candies, creating a cheap
high. They can also easily afford locally made ecstasy.

Understanding that a drug habit can be very hard on their
pockets after a while, many addicts begin to steal. Some progress
and become pushers to support their personal drug habit. By
turning on others to their drug of choice, pushers can negotiate
a better deal from their connection, selling some and having
enough left over to use for themselves.

However, this happens only with the less-serious dealers.
Serious dealers are hardly ever addicts, and are calculating and
cunning businesspeople. They recruit chosen people that in turn
recruit other people that put the drugs onto the streets. Chosen
people are those who need money, yet do not need the drugs for
themselves. Addicts are not a good choice as they are hard to
trust and often steal and use their own merchandise to support
their habit.

Donny, 37, said, "I got fired during the crisis. I used drugs
to escape from the painful reality. I used, and later began
dealing drugs because I have no more money and have stolen or
sold everything I could! As I began selling drugs, I made good
money.

"Then I began using the drugs more for myself. It got me into
trouble with my dealers and they hounded me," said Donny, who is
struggling to recover, only after experiencing that his drug use
was increasingly becoming more painful that staying clean.

Crisis

The economic and political crisis have made the drug scene
worse. Selling drugs is a very lucrative, profitable business.
So, our Indonesian economic crisis, if anything, has only spurred
people to turn their heads toward drug dealing as a source of
income and helped create more abusers and addicts. Drug dealers
are using various competitive marketing strategies to grab
customers, with an alluring promise of fun and escape from worry
and stress.

And the amount of money changing hands is huge. If an abuser
or addict spends Rp 100,000 a day, and recognizing that Indonesia
has reportedly 1.3 million drug abusers and addicts, the amount
spent on drugs here, then, would be about Rp 130 billion each
day. It could be better spent to help others during these times
of political and economic crises.

Peter Piot of UNAIDS, in a press release earlier this year,
stated that the economic crisis has caused nearly 20 percent of
young Indonesian girls to drop out of school in the 1998/1999
school year. His biggest concern is that these young girls,
without education and employable skills, will drift into high
risk behaviors such as drug use and prostitution. In addition, in
drug circles, young girls often sell sex to get drugs. Sex
workers also use alcohol and drugs to mask their pain. "Sex,
Drugs and Rock 'n Roll" still holds true today within the Drug
Culture. This means sexually transmitted diseases, aside from
crime and violence, will inevitably be a large part of our drug
problem package.

Hepatitis and AIDS are also serious threats to drugs users.
According to UNAIDS, 700,000 young people aged 10 to 24 are
infected with HIV in Asia, yearly. UN officials have reported
that heroin addiction is responsible for 65 percent of new HIV
infections nationwide in Vietnam. Jakarta has about 130,000 drug
users today in the age range of 15 to 24. Experts say that 40
percent are estimated to be Injecting Drug Users. So, it looks
like we will see much of the same in Indonesia. We need to make a
combined and coordinated effort to face the challenges this
problem brings.

The writers are AIDS and addiction consultants.