Students begin anti-drug campaign

BOGOR (JP): Some 780 junior and senior high school students held a rally to commence an anti-drug campaign by marching from their respective schools to the Bogor Botanical Gardens on Thursday.

An official with Bogor Municipality Education Agency, Ade Syarief, said that the campaign would focus young people and hopefully make them more aware of the dangers involved with illicit drug use.

He implored the students to "just say no" to drugs, especially at schools, where they will be severely reprimanded, which may include expulsion.

The top Bogor Police detective in charge of drug cases, Adj. Comr. Haryanto, said that in the first eight months of 2003, his section had caught seven students in the act of using illegal drugs.

Bogor Mayor Iswara Natanegara urged the students to continue the anti-drug campaign at their schools and called for all teachers and parents to become active in the campaign. -- JP