Ex-addicts push for drug rehabilitation center

Former drug addicts from Bali’s Narcotics Victims Association (IKON) are urging the provincial legislative council to allocate funds to establish a drug rehabilitation center on the island.

“Being a drug addict is extremely painful and helpless,” IKON coordinator Made Petradi said Tuesday. He said that 90 percent of drug addicts want to stop being addicts.

Petradi said many addicts could not afford the healthcare they required or pay for detox and rehabilitation.

 “We are Indonesian citizens who have the right to a better future,” he said.

Drug rehabilitation costs between Rp 1 million (US$111) and Rp 3 million for a three-month program.

“Many of us don’t have that kind of money,” Petradi said.

IKON, which has 120 members, has been working to help drug addicts foster healthier lives for themselves.

The provincial council’s commission III deputy chair Ketut Kariyasa said they would consider the
request.

“If they have the intention to return to healthy and normal activities then we should support them,” Kariyasa said.

A drug rehabilitation center is desperately needed following a recent decision to send drug users that are apprehended to rehab instead of prison. But, drug users must fund their own medical treatment.

An alternative is for addicts to obtain funds from the Bali Mandara free healthcare project.

Petradi said IKON would fight for addicts to be able to use the free healthcare fund.

Bali already has one drug rehabilitation center at Bangli Hospital. “We hope they can construct additional rooms,” he said.

— JP/Ni Komang Erviani