Prevention vital to free youth from drug abuse

JAKARTA (JP): An official of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports Makmuri Muchlas stressed yesterday the importance of preventing Indonesian youths abusing drugs and other substances.

Muchlas said preventative measures were needed to maintain alertness and productivity in young people.

He was speaking at a four-day international conference on drug abuse with participants from 32 countries.

He said cooperation with local, regional and international organizations and universities was necessary because of his department's limited staff and budget.

He cited efforts made by Bakolak, a government body formed in 1971, and the Bersama Foundation, established by the late First Lady Tien Soeharto.

The programs include Say No to Drugs club and Youth Federation against Drug Abuse in cooperation with the National Youth Council.

Although Bakolak did not have the power of a taskforce as in Malaysia and Singapore, it had the authority to prevent drug abuse and juvenile delinquency which could be coordinated further with the United Nations, he said.

Muchlas said Singapore and Malaysia were actively involved at regional and international levels to develop further techniques to solve the drug problem, particularly Ecstasy.

He discussed measures to fight the problem including technology transfer on methodologies on illicit drug prevention and control, technical assistance to control and prevent drug abuse from regional and international organizations and from developed countries.

The problems he listed were young people getting too general an education, poor supervision and control of legal channels and light sentencing for convicted drug traffickers.

Although Muchlas did not give exact figures of drug addicts, he said they have always been conservatively estimated at just 0.05 percent of Indonesia's population.

He said statistics could be compiled at local level through universities and local statistics bureaus to get a national average on the level of Indonesian drug abuse.

An Indonesian participant, Willy Karamoy, said the conservative figure could be multiplied by 10 to estimate a more realistic number of Indonesian drug abusers.

Muchlas said it was essential local communities take responsibility, along with government and non-government organizations, for combating drug abuse.

Above all, he said primary prevention, or preventing drug abuse at a family or household level, was the key to a drug-free society.

University of Indonesia professor Ascobat Gani said the worldwide illegal drug business was highly lucrative, worth US$150 billion annually plus the cost to the lives of families, children and companies.

He said Ecstasy use cost its victims US$1.6 million in Indonesia annually. (01)