Both the rich and the poor are prone to drug abuse, given the affordability of more synthetic drugs, Vice President Boediono said.
“The public has to be aware that there has been an increase in synthetic drug abuse cases. This is dangerous because synthetic drugs are cheap,” Boediono said Saturday at an event to observe the 2010 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at the National Monument in Central Jakarta.
Synthetic drugs are substances produced from chemical reactions in a laboratory. Synthetic and
semi-synthetic recreational drugs include ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines.
From 2009-2010 there was “an increase of 30 percent in synthetic drug abuse cases, including crystal meth, ecstasy and LSD,” National Narcotics Agency (BNN) chief Gories Mere said.
Meanwhile, abuse of heroin, marijuana and cocaine has decreased, he said.
As of February, one gram of low quality crystal meth cost around Rp 800,000 (US$88) while a gram of heroin was almost twice as much, a BNN offiical said.
Gories said the factories producing these drugs were scattered across Java, contributing to the lower cost of the drugs.
According to the 2010 World Drug Report released recently by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), drug use was moving away from cocaine and opiates, and toward synthetic drugs such as amphetamines.
“Many raw materials are both legal and readily available” in the production of synthetic drugs, which was one reason the amphetamine stimulants’ market is hard to track, the UN report said.
A survey by the narcotics body, in collaboration with the University of Indonesia, in 2008 estimated there were 3.3 million drug users in the country, which was 1.99 percent of the total population, Gories said.
Of this figure, almost half, or 1.3 million abusers, were college and high-school students, he said.
“We should not automatically assume that every drug user is a criminal,” Gories said.
“Therapy and rehabilitation are the best steps to overcome the addiction problem.”
The BNN has 365 rehabilitation centers across the country but there needs to be more, he said. (ipa)
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