Drug Addicts Branded As Criminals Under New Law

The Jakarta Post

The House of Representatives passed the anti-narcotics bill into law Monday amid criticism from anti-drug groups that the newly passed law will not help rehabilitate drug addicts.

“This law classifies drug addicts as criminals and therefore subjects them to criminal charges, while doctors have said that drug addiction is a curable disease,” the Indonesian Coalition for Drug Policy Reform (ICDPR) coordinator Asmin Fransisca told reporters outside the House’ plenary session hall.

“The law should have recognized that a proper solution to drug addiction is to empower drug addicts, not to punish them as criminals.”

Regulasi NAPZA Indonesia di Persimpangan Jalan

Yvonne Sibuea

Ungkapan berbahasa latin Vox populi, vox dei (Suara Tuhan adalah Suara Rakyat ) terbukti tidak berlaku di bumi pertiwi Indonesia.  Suara rakyat yang pada masa kampanye pemilihan anggota legislatif diperebutkan untuk mendongkrak peringkat calon-calon legislatif  merebut kursi empuk DPR RI, ternyata sama sekali dinafikan pada saat mereka telah berhasil mencapai misinya. Suara rakyat tidak dibutuhkan lagi, setidaknya sampai 5 tahun ke depan, saat pemilu legislatif kembali digelar.

Drug policy revolution in Indonesia?

Rido Triawan

Mexico passed a controversial law on Aug. 20, 2009, decriminalizing people's personal use of drugs. Under the new law, the maximum amount of marijuana that can be considered for personal use is 5 grams - the equivalent of about four marijuana cigarettes. Other limits are half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams of LSD.

Anyone caught with possession of drug amounts below and up to the allowed limit for their personal use will be encouraged to seek treatment. For those caught a third time, treatment is mandatory - although there are no specified penalties for noncompliance.

This demand-reduction policy contradicts the supply-reduction policy adopted by the Mexican government. In terms of supply reduction, Mexico uses a traditional approach to national security and transnational crime reduction. The use of police and military forces is chosen by the government to reduce the supply of illicit drugs into Mexico.

Without doubt, the decriminalization policy is a progressive effort to humanize people who use drugs. Addiction in general, including addiction to all kind of drugs, is no longer viewed as a kind of behavior. Through this new policy, it is already being viewed as a kind of disease. Some experts define addiction as a chronic disease similar to other chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Indonesia's Drug Fight Pushes Prison AIDS Explosion

Aubrey Belford (AFP)


JAKARTA — Their tattooed skin hanging loosely from hollowed-out limbs, the young men in the clinic at the edge of Jakarta's Cipinang Narcotic Prison lie limply across black vinyl beds.


The half-dozen inmates are in the advanced stages of HIV/AIDS, and are part of a crisis that has seen the disease sweep through Indonesia's overcrowded, squalid and corrupt prisons.