T

he debate over whether drug users are criminals or victims continues to hinder the development of drug rehabilitation centers and programs, with budgets issues front and center.

A recent seminar hosted by a legislative commission on health and laborers, titled Decriminalization of Drug Users as Part of Health Protection, argued that they should be put in rehabilitation centers instead of prison because criminal sanctions do not deter those who commit drug-related crimes.

However, the question remains as to which government body should be involved in revising the relevant criminal laws and whether the law enforcement bodies should assist the Health Ministry fund the development of rehabilitation centers.

During the seminar, speakers on various sides of the issue cited data indicating that criminalization remained dominant over rehabilitation in the handling of drug cases.

According to November data from the Corrections Directorate General, more than 29,000, or 35 percent, of Indonesia’s prison inmates are drug users.

The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform reported that only 10 percent of judges’ verdicts in 2015 involved rehabilitation.

The Legal Aid Institute came to a similar conclusion based on research in the same year, which showed that out of 522 drug-related verdicts in Greater Jakarta, only 43 defendants were sent for rehabilitation.

“This raises serious concerns about the rising numbers of those incarcerated for drug-related crimes and the prison system’s ability to deal with them,” said legislator and psychiatrist Nova Riyanti Yusuf.

According to the 2009 Narcotics Law, judges are allowed to hand down rehabilitation orders rather than prison sentences to drug users. However, this has yet to generate positive results, with there being a tendency to hand down prison sentences instead.

Fidiansyah, the Health Ministry’s director of prevention and control of mental health and drug problems, said the ministry was now working on revising the law, but there was no estimated time frame for its completion.

“We want to redefine ‘drug user’ so that we can assure that they get rehabilitation,” he said.

Nova said the law must be revised immediately, adding that it would be impossible for Indonesia to eradicate drugs effectively if the issues of law reform and the responsibility for budget allocations for rehabilitation were not resolved.

Fidiansyah said that although the government had encouraged health centers to add rehabilitation programs, a lack of human resources and tight budgetary funding remain a problem.

Currently, Indonesia has only one rehabilitation center in Lido, West Java.

Subhan Panjaitan, the advocacy coordinator of Rumah Cemara, a group for recovering drug addicts, said the government should maximize other alternatives in rehabilitating drug users, other than medical approaches, so it could solve the problem of overcrowding in prisons.

He added that the use of religious and traditional approaches to rehabilitating drug addicts was stipulated in the law.

“Although the law states that the responsibility for rehabilitation belongs to the Health Ministry, it is not clear about the details,” he added.

Fidiansyah said even though the law stipulates that drug rehabilitation must be funded by the state, concerned institutions are reluctant to cover the cost.

“At this point, the function of the Healthcare and Social Security Agency [BPJS], as a source of health coverage, has not been adequately addressed in the law, so it remains unclear whether other types of insurance can be available for drug rehabilitation patients,” Fidiansyah said.

In a response to this, Subhan said the government appeared to be discriminating against drug users by not allowing them health insurance alternatives.

He suggested that the government allocate more budgetary funding for the rehabilitation of drug addicts under BPJS, which could be taken from the existing budget for law enforcement eradication of drug trafficking, rather than continuing to burden the Health Ministry with the responsibility to build rehabilitation centers nationwide. (ggq)