Nine percent of students have taken drugs: Survey

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Nine out of every one hundred students admit they have taken drugs, according to a survey conducted between 2000 and early 2002 by anti-drugs foundation Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (YCAB).

"Those who have taken drugs are much more vulnerable to addiction," Veronica Colondam, the foundation's chief executive officer, said on Thursday.

The questionnaire survey covered thousands of students from 11 cities across the country.

Once a person becomes an addict, Veronica contended, they find it difficult to escape addiction. Citing another survey, she said 90 percent of addicts who have undergone rehabilitation treatment relapse.

Drug prevention programs are more likely to be effective on curbing drug abuse than rehabilitation programs, said Veronica.

However, many schools have refused to host drug prevention campaigns for superficial reasons, said Veronica, who received the UN Civil Society Awards 2001 for drug prevention from the United Nations Headquarters for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in Vienna, Austria, late last year.

Many school principals are afraid that their school accreditation status could be downgraded if there were students registered as drug addicts attending their school, she said.

"They (the principals) are also afraid that by hosting an anti-drugs campaign, people will think that their school is a haven for drug abuse. And that, they think, could tarnish the school's popularity," Veronica said.

"Education on drugs should be included in the school curriculum," she said, before launching a drug prevention campaign at Megamal Pluit shopping mall in North Jakarta, which runs until May 5.

The Ministry of Education reported earlier that between 1999 and 2000, a total of 1,015 students from 166 middle schools in Jakarta took drugs. Of the total, 315 students have been expelled from their schools as they were also discovered to be drug dealers.

At that time, the ministry asked the schools to report drug problems to them, but many did not respond.

According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2000, Jakarta has 1,017 secondary schools with more than 388,000 students. It also has 473 high schools and 598 vocational schools with 211,212 and 199,649 students respectively.

Meanwhile, Rustam, a vocational school student in North Jakarta, said three of his 35 classmates were drug addicts.

"They take drugs together at home after school," he said.

Rustam, along with more than a hundred other students from schools in North Jakarta, joined the drug prevention campaign at the mall.

A team of expert counselors were also present to provide free advice and information about drug prevention.