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Jakarta Post

Solutions to ketamine problem

If the government decides to categorize it as a psychotropic, it should prioritize tightening the distribution rather than punishing users.

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, December 15, 2024

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Solutions to ketamine problem A stock illustration of prescribed injected ketamine. (Shutterstock/Darwin Brandis)

Indonesia has once again followed a global trend, but not in a good way, as this is related to the use of ketamine.

The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) recently announced that sales of injectable ketamine, the usage of which is strictly regulated, have been increasing. Last year, around 64,000 vials of the hard drug were sold, representing an increase of more than 20-fold compared with 3,000 vials sold in 2022.

Patients can only buy ketamine using prescriptions from doctors, and only medical workers are allowed to administer the drug to them. Yet, the BPOM found that ketamine has been utilized as a recreational drug or anesthetic in tattoo shops.

Upon discovering the figure, the BPOM then urged the Health Ministry to put ketamine on the list of psychotropic drugs in an attempt to curb the illicit sales and usage of the drug across the country.

Ketamine is widely used in anesthetic procedures or prescribed to manage treatment-resistant depression. But uncontrolled administration of the drug may trigger addiction and become fatal.

Ketamine use has increased in other parts of the world, such the United States and the United Kingdom where more people are not only using ketamine for recreational and medical purposes, but also seeking treatment for addiction to the drug.

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The rise in illicit ketamine sales in our country is indeed concerning, but if the government decides to categorize it as a psychotropic, it should prioritize tightening the distribution rather than punishing users.

The BPOM announced that it found 71 drug distributors and 65 drugstores violating the rules pertaining to ketamine sales. The agency proceeded by suspending operations of six distributors and 17 stores following critical violations.

Such findings should serve as a good starting point for the BPOM and other agencies to curb the illicit sale and usage of ketamine. The drug monitoring agency should show firm commitment and integrity in suspending or even shutting down anyone found to be selling the substance freely.

Another option would be allowing ketamine to be administered only in clinics or health facilities, as applied to some other psychotropic drugs. In the US, for example, ketamine has been used to treat depression, but only in selected clinics and cannot be administered outside the health facilities.

The government should also refrain from prioritizing criminal charges against ketamine users, this is to prevent the substance from exacerbating the problem of overcrowded prisons across the country.

The 1997 Psychotropics Law mandates up to 15 years of imprisonment for people found guilty of illegally using or possessing certain types of psychotropic drugs. The punishment is harsher for people found illegally distributing psychotropic drugs, as they can face the death penalty.

With more than half of people behind bars convicted in drug cases, according to government data, the country’s prisons do not have much room left for ketamine abusers. Some of these convicts are even still abusing and controlling drug businesses from within their cells.

Prevailing laws mandate rehabilitation for drug users. The government should put more effort into those measures for ketamine abusers rather than jailing them.

The efforts should achieve improvements both in terms of quantity, measured by an increase in rehab centers or clinics providing ketamine and other drug-rehabilitation services, as well as quality marked by preventing users from relapsing.

There are alternatives in dealing with drug problems. Portugal, a nation with one of the worst drug abuse records in the world, has set a good example in the past decade in how to deal with drug abuse without jailing users, by viewing the users as humans instead of criminals.

There is a big ketamine problem brewing on the horizon. Indonesian authorities should open their eyes to a more humane approach in dealing with abusers of ketamine and other substances, rather than beating them down with criminal charges and imprisonment.

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