Police war on drugs taken to grassroots
Police war on drugs taken to grassroots
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Police force will shift its efforts from mere
discussions and seminars to more concrete measures in fighting
drug abuse, as the number of young drug abusers continues to rise
nationwide.
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Monday that
he had ordered his officers to use the funds allocated for
combating drug abuse to promote prevention straight to
households, to investigate drug cases, complete unresolved cases
and to conduct rehabilitation for those who are addicted.
"Instead of holding costly seminars or ceremonial events, we
will use the funds to finance activities that directly affect the
potential users or drug victims," Da'i said during a seminar at
the Hilton Hotel in Central Jakarta.
The state allocated Rp 105 billion for the fight against drug
abuse nationwide this year, down from Rp 150 billion in 2003.
Da'i vowed to capture as many drug dealers as possible, while
trying to enable people at the neighborhood level to identify
various kinds of drugs being circulated in their neigborhood.
"After they can identify various drugs, then they can report
to the police once they find such substances in their
neighborhood," he said.
Da'i said that the police need full cooperation from the
community to be able to affectively combat drug abuse across the
country. He added that the personal approach to make people aware
of the presence and danger of drugs and their dealers in their
surroundings would be more effective than the "all these seminars
and ceremonial events" conducted by police so far.
"We accept the criticism ... we realize that thousands of
people attending a ceremony won't bother to listen to
explanations about our efforts to curb drug abuse," he said.
On Sunday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri inagaurated a
launching ceremony for a nationwide fight against drug abuse. The
event was organized by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and
nearly 17,000 people attended.
Cynics have said that the tougher measures against drug
dealers such as the execution of Indian national Prasadh Chaubey,
and the rejection of clemency for other convicted drug
traffickers, were part of efforts by Megawati to win more support
ahead of the Sept. 20 runoff of the presidential election.
Two Thai nationals, who are among those on death row for drug
trafficking, are scheduled to go before the firing squad on Sept.
19, after their clemency requests were denied by Megawati.
Other activists have said that the government's moves had
failed to curb drug abuse. They cite the fact that since BNN was
established in the mid 1990's, the number of drug abusers in the
country had rocketed to alarming levels.
According to the latest survey on teenagers in 26 provinces by
BNN and the University of Indonesia, 3.9 percent of the total of
13,100 respondents admitted abusing drugs.
Da'i also warned that according to the United Nations over 1
percent of the country's over 220 million people were involved in
drugs, as a dealer or a user.
"We are no longer merely a point of transit, but a market for
the international drug syndicates. We are also now the producers
as well as users. According to the UN, Indonesia has one of the
highest levels of psychotropic subtance abuse," he said.
He explained that according to a recent survey, drug users
said they prefered to be shot dead rather than have their supply
of drugs stopped when they need a "high".
"They are not afraid of being shot. This shows that we need to
prevent them from using drugs ... rather than focusing on curing
them," Da'i said.
Government officials have, however, argued that the death
sentence for convicted drug abusers is necessary to deter more
drug abusers or potential traffickers from commiting the crimes.