Drug addicts obliged to report to hospitals

The Bali Narcotics Agency (BNP Bali) will oblige drugs addicts to report to one of five government-sanctioned health institutions to help prevent HIV/AIDS from spreading due to needle sharing.

BNP Bali has disclosed that more than 100 registered drug addicts had met the obligation to report to the five hospitals and community health centers (Puskesmas).

Most of them underwent methadone therapy as part of the harm reduction program for HIV/AIDS prevention.

However, the drug addicts were those who had undergone therapy before the issuance of the instruction on compulsory reporting.

“There will be no special or additional bureaucratic procedures on the obligation so that we just registered clients who underwent therapy,” Ketut Adi Listiani, head of BNP Bali, said in Denpasar recently.

According to Listiani, the central government needs to provide attendance cards and more officers. “So whenever they (the drug addicts) are arrested, they can simply show the police the cards as proof that they belong to a group so that they are released,” she said.

The five health institutions chosen by the government for addicts to report to in Bali are Sanglah Hospital, Bangli Psychiatric Hospital, Puskesmas Kuta I, Puskesmas Tabanan III and Puskesmas Abiansemal Badung. The five centers have long offered drug rehabilitation, especially methadone therapy.

The obligation to report started on Oct. 18, or six months after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued on April 18 Government Regulation No. 25/2011 on the obligation of drug addicts to
report.

After the enactment of the 2009 Narcotics Law, the state has obliged drug addicts or their parents to report to a medical or social institution appointed by the government.

Those who neglect to meet the obligation will be charged under Article 128 of the law, which stipulates six months’ imprisonment or a fine of up to Rp 1 million (US$113) for any drug addict who fails to report.

BNP Bali said that the obligation to report would facilitate it in offering drug addicts therapy and prevent them from being arrested by the police.

“Their case will not reach the prosecutor’s office so that they will not stand trial. The new regulation on narcotics will be lenient on drug addicts but much harsher on drug traffickers,” Listiani said. But dissemination on information on the law has been limited to institutions appointed by the government.

Putu Adi Mantara, founder of the Napza drug addiction program in Bali, acknowledged that there was a lack of dissemination in Bali and an absence of a clear-cut agreement between the police and the court.

“There should have been an agreement between BNP and other institutions to guarantee an easy procedure and therapy for drug addicts,” he said.