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View all search resultsIllegal drugs cost country US$4.7 billion last year, claims Jokowi
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A foreigner waits to be processed after the police caught him and four others carrying crystal methamphetamine into a hotel in Jakarta in January this year. (the jakarta post/Wienda Parwitasari)
T
he spread of illegal narcotics among Indonesian society cost the country Rp 63 trillion (US$4.7 billion) and 14,000 lives last year, while 5.1 million Indonesians are currently addicted to drugs, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has claimed.
The country suffered the trillions of rupiah in losses from people buying illegal substances and state spending on treatment and rehabilitation, the President said during an event to mark International Anti-Narcotics Day.
"[The figure] also includes losses from thefts related to drug addiction […] Remember, 40 to 50 youngsters die everyday as a result of drugs. If the law allowed me to, I would have [all drug dealers] shot," Jokowi said in a press statement in Jakarta on Sunday.
Drug dealers, he went on, had found new methods of introducing their forbidden goods into society, namely by using women and children as couriers. According to the President, dealers also plant narcotics in children's toys and prosthesis, among other unexpected methods.
He vowed therefore to continue the war he has launched against narcotics by classifying the trade in drugs as an extraordinary crime and ordering law enforcers to hunt down and arrest all drug dealers in the country.
Jokowi called for all institutions to integrate efforts to combat the spread of narcotics, from the National Police, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and ministries to NGOs. (ags)
