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Bali urged to set up drug rehabilitation
The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Bali branch is urging the provincial administration to accelerate the establishment of a drug rehabilitation center
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T
he National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Bali branch is urging the provincial administration to accelerate the establishment of a drug rehabilitation center.
BNN Bali head, I Gusti Ketut Budiarta, expected the planned 2.5 hectare rehabilitation center, previously designated as part of Bangli Mental Health Hospital in Bangli regency, would enable people with drug addictions to receive proper medical treatment.
Bali, he said, had an increasing number of drug addicts, around 55,000 people, many of whom were still young and of a productive age.
'Only 560 persons, or one percent, of the addicts have the courage to come to BNN,' Budiarta said.
The rest were afraid of being arrested as criminals and put in jail if they admitted to being drug users, he said. 'They have not been informed that they can report their addiction without having to worry about being treated as criminals,' Budiarta said.
BNN provides addicts with report cards to allow them to get comprehensive assessment'medical and psychological, prior to undergoing targeted treatment.
The report cards were important for drug users, demonstrating they were registered with BNN.
'If they get caught in a police raid, for example, they can show their card and tell the police they are undergoing rehabilitation'and are not a drug dealer or drug trafficker.'
Despite the lack of rehabilitation facilities in Bali, BNN remains proactive. 'We have sent 50 drug users from Bali for treatment at the Lido rehabilitation center in Sukabumi [West Java] and Badokka in Makassar in South Sulawesi.'
'BNN sends them to the two rehabilitation centers in the hope that they recover and do not return to their old habits.'
In addition to the drug rehabilitation center, the provincial administration also plans to develop a correctional institution for drug convicts, also in Bangli.
Currently, more than 50 percent of the 1,020 inmates in Kerobokan Penitentiary in Kuta are involved in drug cases. Some of them are drug users, while others are members of international and domestic narcotics syndicates. The overcrowded Kerobokan prison was designed for 323 prisoners, far lower than its current population.
