Soeharto wants anti-narcotic drive intensified
Soeharto wants anti-narcotic drive intensified
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday said that Indonesia should conduct an intensive campaign against drug abuse even though narcotic are a relatively small problem in the country.
"We should conduct this campaign without overdramatizing the problem," Soeharto was quoted as saying by Soedibyo, the chief of the State Intelligence Board.
The problem is serious, particularly given that drug addiction is prevalent among young people, he told reporters after meeting with Soeharto at the Merdeka Palace.
Soedibyo yesterday reported to the head of state in his capacity as head of an agency that coordinates the nation's campaign against drug trafficking and abuse.
He said that the campaign has involved public figures since 1978 with the establishment of Wargatama, a private coordination and consultative agency that handles problems related to drug addiction, including rehabilitation.
Wargatama's credibility was given a further boost in 1990 when it enlisted President Soeharto as its chief trustee and First Lady Tien Soeharto and a number of cabinet ministers as advisors. The organization is currently headed by Putra Astaman, a retired police major general.
Asked about the extent of drug abuse in Indonesia, Soedibyo said that in 1994 the police estimated the number of drug addicts and dealers to be around 14,800.
He said the actual number could be 10 times as high given the reluctance of families to report family members who may have a drug problem.
He said drug addicts and dealers are often very difficult to differentiate because an addict often trades in the contraband, and dealers are often addicts themselves.
Soedibyo said that although more and more heroin has being seized by the authorities in Indonesia in recent years, it is believed that most of it was in transit to other countries.
He pointed out that the Drug Addiction Treatment Center at the Fatmawati Hospital in Jakarta rarely deals with people addicted to heroin. Most of the center's patients are addicted to marijuana and prescription drugs.
"Rarely do we find cases of heroin addicts. From this, we conclude that the heroin haul recently seized in this country was not really intended for the local market."
Between 1993 and 1994, some 90 kilograms of heroin was seized at airports in Medan, Jakarta, and Denpasar. Almost all involved foreigners, some of whom received the death penalty.
A survey of patients treated at the Fatmawati center showed that 85 percent of them came from the 15-25 year age group.
Soedibyo said another surprising finding is that drug addiction is not a rich man's problem as widely believed given the high cost of drugs and treatment.
The majority of patients at the Fatmawati center come from people in the middle-to-low income group, he said. There are children of Armed Forces members, children of civil servants and children of average people.
"The survey fails to show any particular pattern of drug addiction in Indonesia. This has given us high hopes of suppressing the problem in this country," he said.
Soedibyo said the anti-narcotic campaign in Indonesia is more preventive in nature, taking the campaign not only to youngsters, but also to parents, to inform them of the dangers of drug addiction. Such a campaign must involve the participation of as wide a range of people as possible, he added.
"Someone who is addicted virtually waits for his death," is the message that Wargatama intends to give to youths and parents.
The campaign is also targeted at narcotic victims, to try to cure them of their addiction and once cured, prevent them from going back to their old habits.
The other target of the campaign is to nail the dealers and punish them as harshly as possible.
More than 10 people have been sentenced to death for drug trafficking since the maximum penalty was introduced in 1974.
However, only one person has been executed -- a Malaysian in January. (emb)