T

he National Police revealed on Monday that the number of drug-related cases nationwide has increased dramatically this year.

National Police narcotics unit chief Brig. Gen. Anjan Pramuka Putra said that the number of cases had risen from 17,539 last year to 18,788 this year.

'€œThere were around 23,000 suspects named last year, while we named 25,151 suspects in drug-related cases throughout 2014,'€ he said.

Anjan explained that 126 of those suspects were foreign nationals from several countries, including Taiwan, China and Nigeria.

He said that many of drug rings targeted Indonesia as their market base because the demand for drugs was increasing every year.

According to the most recent data from the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), around 2.2 percent, or 3.8 million people, of the total population had used drugs in 2011. The number had also risen slightly since 2008, in which 1.99 percent of the population, or around 3.3 million people, had tried or were actively using drugs.

Jakarta had the highest concentration of drug users in 2011 with up to 491,848 people, or 7 percent out of the 7.02 million people registered with the Jakarta administration, having abused drugs.

The demand for marijuana and shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) was at an all-time high this year, Anjan said.

'€œWe confiscated 56.4 tons of marijuana this year, in comparison to 15.56 tons last year. That'€™s more than a 200 percent increase,'€ he said.

Police data showed that the amount of shabu-shabu confiscated this year was 611.2 kilograms, up from 297 kilograms last year.

Apart from transporting goods through international airports, Anjan noted, those involved in international drug rings usually took advantage of the nation'€™s smaller ports in places such as Aceh, Jambi, Riau and Batam.

The couriers also used increasingly creative methods to make sure that the narcotics went undetected, such as employing body-wrapping methods, and this year they sometimes disguised the goods in candy wrappers.

Due to the frightening increase of cases, Anjan said that the police force supported the execution of drug convicts in order to keep the public safe from drug abuse.

'€œWe fully support the executions, or at least life imprisonments, of drug traffickers as they are a danger to many and the consumption of drugs could lead to a damaged generation,'€ he said.

Earlier this month, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo authorized the executions of five drug convicts, with 20 other death-row inmates set to face the firing squad next year.

Many human rights activists had slammed Jokowi'€™s decision and questioned his commitment to human rights.

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Siti Noor Laila previously said that an execution would make it impossible to revise a conviction if the convicts were proven innocent after their case was reviewed.