TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsValidity of estimated drug-user figures questioned
A group of Indonesian academics and experts has questioned the validity of estimated drug use figures that the government frequently uses to highlight the countryâs drug crisis and making it a basis to launch a large-scale anti-drug war
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A
group of Indonesian academics and experts has questioned the validity of estimated drug use figures that the government frequently uses to highlight the country's drug crisis and making it a basis to launch a large-scale anti-drug war.
In an open letter to President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo recently published in leading health journal The Lancet, the group called on President Jokowi to invest more in more accurate data collection on drug use in Indonesia.
A researcher with Atmajaya University's HIV and AIDS Research Center, Irwanto, said the group was concerned that the government had used the estimates as the basis for its national policies without providing sufficient opportunity for independent peer review.
'Obtaining valid estimates of drug use is not an easy, direct process and we need to make sure that national policies are based on evidence that is thoroughly peer-reviewed and transparent. Each human life matters. Productive human lives may be compromised by misguided policies,' he said.
Irwanto is one of the letter's signatories, which include Sulistyowati Irianto, a professor at the University of Indonesia's School of Law; Siti Musdah Mulia, a Muslim scholar and chairperson of the Indonesian Conference on Religion for Peace; DN Wirawan, head of the public health postgraduate program at Udayana University; and Ignatius Praptoraharjo, a researcher at the Center for Health Policy and Management at Gadjah Mada University's School of Medicine, among others.
In the letter, they urged the government to establish an independent, multi-sectoral drug-use committee assigned to review available drug-related data, set priorities, recommend evidence-informed actions and monitor progress.
'As drug users, we have seen and experienced ourselves that repressive and punitive approaches have exacerbated drug-related deaths and harm, such as HIV and hepatitis C transmission,' said Edo Agustian, the Indonesian Drug Users Network national coordinator.
'We urge the government to work together with drug-using communities, academics and other stakeholders to build a more effective response to prevent more losses.' (ebf)
