Yogyakarta testing students for drugs
Yogyakarta testing students for drugs
Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta
The Yogyakarta city administration has began taking random urine
samples from at least 1,000 high school and university students
to monitor the circulation of illegal drugs.
The tests were intended to assess the spread of drugs in the
city so a policy could be formulated to fight drug dealing and
drug use, Yogyakarta Mayor Herry Zudianto said on Wednesday.
At present, crime statistics indicate the circulation of
illegal drugs among students in Yogyakarta has significantly
increased through the years. The university town is ranked second
after Jakarta for the number of drug-related arrests in the
municipality.
By May this year, the number of drug arrests by police in
Yogyakarta stood at 74. There were 245 arrests recorded last year
and 208 arrests in 2002.
Herry said the urine samples were part of a plan to combat
drug abuse among the students, whom he said were the nation's
future.
The tests were not meant to judge students who tested positive
to using drugs because they were only the victims of drug
dealers, he said.
"We will give advice and directions to students addicted to
drugs. They are only victims who need to be saved," he said.
Yogyakarta education office student affairs program head Aji
Baskoro said the tests would also affect university students.
"We will facilitate a meeting with all higher learning
institution rectors in Yogyakarta to wage war on drugs," he told
The Jakarta Post.
The next step would be to conduct random urine tests on the
students in conjunction with the authorities.
"If they are positively using drugs, we leave it to their
respective universities to mete out sanctions. But we will
receive drug addicts from all universities for rehabilitation,"
he explained.
Herry said if the samples of the first 1,000 students showed
many had tested positive, the administration would continue with
the tests. "But if not, we will stop running them," he said.
He said the results of every test sample would be kept
confidential to avoid conflicts between students and social
discrimination against those who tested positive.
"The municipality has allocated funds of Rp 60,000 (US$7.00)
to Rp 75,000" to carry out each urine sample, he said.
Yogyakarta's Wirosaban General Hospital director Mulyoharto
said the hospital tested 240 students on the first day of the
scheme on Wednesday.
"We are visiting schools and randomly choosing students. We
will continue this until the target of 1,000 students is met," he
said.