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n April 2015, F, 31, decided to give his mother cannabis extract. He said he knew it would be a controversial decision, but he had no other choice.

His 56-year-old mother, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer a month earlier, was in a lot of pain as the cancer had reached the advanced stage and she was undergoing chemotherapy, while the doctor had refused to prescribe her morphine, telling her it would “cause addiction, nausea and kidney damage.”

F, who requested that he not be identified to avoid prosecution, believed he had made the right decision. “It has helped her sleep, have a bigger appetite and make her more sociable,” the South Jakarta resident told The Jakarta Post, recently.

As the country wages a deadly war against illegal drugs, F and dozens, if not hundreds, of people whose family members are suffering from rare or degenerative diseases, are hoping the government legalizes medical marijuana.

“The government has to see the other side of it and consider the potential benefits it will create for people,” he told the Post.

Public debate over the use of marijuana for medical purposes emerged in the Muslim-majority country after a photograph of a grieving husband comforting his 3-year-old son at the funeral of his beloved wife in late March went viral. The husband, Fidelis Ari Sudarwoto, 36, had tried everything to ease the suffering of his wife, Yenni Riawati, 39, after her diagnosis with syringomyelia, a rare spinal cord cyst, in 2014.

As a last resort, Ari began growing marijuana to extract its essence with a recipe he found online to create a palliative for his wife. A month before her death, on Feb. 19, Ari was arrested by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) for growing 39 marijuana plants in his home.

F, who claimed to have seen the medical benefits of cannabis, said he hoped Fidelis’ case would trigger a healthy discussion about the use of medical marijuana, which could lead to greater acceptance by the public and government officials.

However, activists said they were skeptical a policy change would happen anytime soon, given the country’s massive campaign against illegal drugs, including marijuana, which is listed among type one narcotics in the 2009 Narcotics Law.

Narcotics policy analyst of the Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat), Yohan Misero, cites articles 7 and 8 of the Narcotics Law to pinpoint the difficulties faced by researchers and advocates of medical marijuana.

Although Article 7 stipulates that “narcotics” can only be utilized for health service intents and/or scientific research and developments, Article 8 further elaborates that type one narcotics are prohibited for use in medical treatments, and any research done with these drugs can be carried out only with the approval and recommendation of the health minister and head of the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM).

Sativa Nusantara Foundation director Inang Winarso said these stipulations made it nearly impossible to carry out research into the medicinal benefits of marijuana.

The foundation, a legal entity that has tried to push research on cannabis sativa since 2014, has faced reluctance from the Health Ministry, despite having acquired a research permit from the ministry’s Health Research and Development Agency on Jan. 30, 2015.

The head of the agency’s research and development of medicinal plants and traditional medicine, Lucie Widowati, acknowledged that the reluctance to support such research was due to potential repercussions inherent in Indonesia’s laws on drugs.

“The research would mean that we would have to grow cannabis ourselves for standardization. Who will safeguard that?” she said.

The BNN has refused to leave any wiggle room for the use of medical marijuana. Its chief, Budi Waseso, said he would stand by his decision to prosecute Ari. “He wanted marijuana to be legalized in Indonesia. We have to be wary of people like him. Physically he is Indonesian, but he is a traitor,” he said.

According to Dhira Narayana, the chairman of Lingkar Ganja Nusantara (LGN), a non-profit organization advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana, his side had received more than 60 cases of patients who illegally obtained marijuana online or through the black market. The cannabis, he said, had evidently helped the patients improve their quality of life. (dis)