We should try to stop drug abuse

By Chris W. Green

JAKARTA (JP): Few people in Indonesia can now be unaware that we face a major threat from drugs. Hardly a day goes by without a report of a drug seizure, arrest of a trafficker, or a death by overdose. We are seeing wider evidence of our young people turning to injecting themselves with heroin or other illicit drugs. And slowly the size of the problem of transmission of HIV and AIDS that this brings is becoming more apparent.

Last month, the Ministry of Health reported another 59 cases of HIV and AIDS resulting from injecting drug use. Now, this is the cause of one in four of the reported cases of infection, up from less than one in a hundred less than two years back.

For the first time, the ministry also reported the breakdown of cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome caused by sharing needles: 86 per cent are under 30. Bearing in mind that it usually takes at least 10 years after infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus before people show the symptoms of AIDS, that means that the vast majority became infected in their teens, in many cases in their early teens.

Is our message about the dangers of drug use reaching children in that age group? Some, but clearly not all. We can consider the glass as half full, noting optimistically that a large number of our youth do not use drugs. But what should we be doing about those we miss? Once they have become hooked, telling them to "Just Say No" clearly is unlikely to make a difference -- consider how hard we find it to say no to cigarettes.

The theme chosen for this year's International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26 is "Sports end Drugs" (http://www.undcp.un.or.th/work/international%20day/sport_end_drug.htm).

Leaving aside the clear evidence that use of performance- enhancing drugs in international sports appears to have become endemic, there is no doubt that sport can be a strong motivator against drug use by young people.

The United Nations' Drug Control Program (UNDCP) recognizes that drug abuse is rampant in many Asian realities. "For some deprived, disillusioned, poor and disadvantaged people," says a UNDCP release, "using drugs may be a way to cope with pain, isolation, abuse and neglect where there are few alternatives."

No doubt, as the release continues, through sports, "people can develop will-power, acquire self-confidence and respect and learn to face problems and opponents with courage and to overcome obstacles with firmness." But this ignores that other reality, that most deprived, poor and disadvantaged people have extremely limited access to sports facilities.

In this soccer-mad city, where are the football pitches required to support such an approach? And where are the adults needed to encourage those youth groups who take the initiative to play? In my estate, a keen but struggling youth football team fights hard to raise the amount needed to rent the local pitch once a week, battling almost complete apathy amongst the elders of the community.

Our estate is lucky to have a basketball court, provided by the developer as mandated by regulations requiring provision of community facilities. Unfortunately, ownership of the land was never transferred to the community, and the latest information is that the developer, facing financial difficulties, has sold the title to the land on which the basketball court stands. No doubt shortly houses will start to appear there. No one seems to have to power or the will to prevent this.

The same is clearly occurring throughout Jakarta. Population pressure -- or golf courses that offer nothing to the young and poor -- are squeezing sports facilities out. And we are standing by allowing this to happen.

To misquote the U.S. gun lobby, "sports don't end drugs, people end drugs." We spend too much time looking for external solutions, when too often the answer lies with us.

"What have we done today to end drugs?"

--The writer is active in health related issues in Jakarta.