NGOs establish body in campaign to fight drug abuse

JAKARTA (JP): Some 200 Jakarta-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) joined hands in a massive campaign against drugs by establishing a consortium on Wednesday to consolidate all their forces and resources into creating a drug-free capital, an official said.

"We realize that working alone is not enough to achieve our common goal," Imron Fadhil Syam of the People Against Drugs (Geram) movement told reporters at City Hall.

He said the group, namely Konsorsium Program Pemberantasan Penyalahgunaan Narkotika, included various institutions, such as youth and students organizations and antidrug organizations.

"We have three main programs to be carried out: community empowerment programs, control programs and therapy and rehabilitation programs," Imron said.

Another executive, Tri Mulyati of the Wisma Adiksi rehabilitation center in Cinere, South Jakarta, said the number of drug addicts treated at the drug addict unit at Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta increased every year.

"There were 1,779 cases in 1996, 3,652 cases in 1997, 5,008 cases in 1998 and 8,170 cases in 1999," she said, while citing Fatmawati Hospital as the only hospital which had a special drug addict treatment unit in Indonesia.

Quoting the World Health Organization (WHO) standard, Tri said there were 10 drug addicts for every case reported.

"Therefore, based on Fatmawati Hospital's data, roughly there are 80,000 to 100,000 people with drug problems," she said.

Herman Soeparman of the Family of Drugs Addicts (KKN) said there were more than two million active drug users nationwide.

"There are also some 4.5 million seasonal addicts, who use drugs on certain occasions only," he said, adding that there were only some 10,000 addicts who had been rehabilitated.

He said Indonesia was one step behind Malaysia and Singapore in handling drug problems.

"Malaysia and Singapore made sufficient preparations in the 1970s, by establishing several rehabilitation centers," he said.

Malaysia, with a population of 24 million, has some 50 rehabilitation centers, while Singapore has 15 centers with a population of four million. Meanwhile, Indonesia only has about 20 centers for its more than 200 million population, he added.

Subagyo of the Karya Bakti Foundation said the increasing number of drug addicts showed the government's failure in handling the matter.

"It's partly because Indonesia is such a vast country with so many problems. People use drugs to forget their daily problems," he said.

"Another reason is that we have improper facilities and limited officials with sufficient skills."

He said law enforcement was very weak as there were loop holes in the antidrug laws and regulations.

He also blamed the limited number of rehabilitation centers in the country.

"Not all rehabilitation centers have a high standard of operation. We will set up a standard for them," Subagyo said.

Tri said the activists had warned the government that the distribution of ecstasy would lead users to heroin.

"The government didn't do anything to respond to the activists' warning of ecstasy distribution. And now it's proven that heroin is widely distributed here," she said.

She said it was expensive to rehabilitate drug addicts as costs reached Rp 3 million per month, with a rehabilitation period of six months to one year for each addict.

"We are trying to create a low-cost mechanism where low-income addicts can be treated. We'll cooperate with local community health centers (Puskesmas)." (05)