President wants tougher penalty for drug dealers

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has called for the imposition of harsher punishment against drug dealers in a bid to help curb the alarming increase in drug abuse in the country, an official said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the President, chairman of National Drugs Coordinating Board Comr. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar underlined the importance of amending the existing law on drugs and psychotropic substances to stipulate more severe punishment for drug dealers.

"We need to impose harsher punishment and if necessary we need to impose the death sentence for the drug dealers as a deterrent," Bachtiar said quoting the President.

He said that the death sentence for drug dealers was needed because currently it was only imposed on drug producers.

Due to the widespread distribution of illegal drugs, the country needs to impose harsher punishment, he said.

"The President expressed concern over the rise in the incidence of drug abuse cases and suggested that there should be a national campaign against drugs. The public should be informed about the consequences of drug abuse," Bachtiar added.

The country has repeatedly imposed the death sentence for drugs producers, mostly against foreigners.

Megawati, during her last visit to nine member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), also urged that the coming ASEAN summit in November discuss problems related to drug abuse.

The President also underlined the importance of handling drug abuse cases in tandem with the effort to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.

"Around 40 percent of drug abusers finally suffer from HIV/AIDS because the disease spreads through the sharing of used syringes among drugs users," he said.

An estimated 3.4 million people, or a quarter of Jakarta's total population, are known to be drug abusers, according to data disclosed in a survey conducted by a consortium of non- governmental organizations, the Program for Management and Eradication of Drugs and Narcotics Abuse (P4) in rehabilitation centers for drug addicts, schools and public places in Jakarta last year.

In 1999 the number of estimated drug abusers stood at only two million people.