Lawmaker wants to crack down on junkie pilots

A senior lawmaker wants stern punishment of any pilot found using drugs after police arrested several aviators for alleged drug use.

“We must set an example and teach them the hard way that they mustn’t play with others lives,” lawmaker Nasir Jamil, the deputy chief of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Separately, National Narcotics Agency (BNN)’s operations chief Brig. Gen. Benny Mamoto agreed that measures had to be taken to deter airline pilots from taking drugs.

“The current Narcotics Law doesn’t allow us to send drug users to prison; only drug dealers go to prison. However, we are now challenged to consider alternatives that would prevent them from repeating the same offenses in the future,” he said.

BNN agents arrested a Lion Air pilot in his room at the Garden Palace Hotel, in Surabaya, East Java, early Saturday for alleged drug use.

According to the BNN laboratory, the pilot, identified as SS, tested positive for crystal methamphetamine use.

Another pilot was previously arrested in Makassar for alleged possession of crystal meth.