Rehab budget cuts stall Indonesia war on drugs
PURBALINGGA (Indonesia): Rizki Mulyadi sits half-submerged in a steaming herbal bath, hands folded in his lap and head down.
Rizki hopes the concoction he is bathing in – and the Islamic teacher who makes it – will help him overcome a six-year addiction to the drug of choice for many in Indonesia: crystal methamphetamine, or “meth”.
The traditional rehabilitation centre in Purbalingga village on Java island says it has treated hundreds of addicts like Rizki, 26, with herbal teas and baths, prayer and counselling.
President Joko Widodo says drugs pose a bigger danger than militancy and he has ordered an intensification of a drugs war that has included the execution of drug traffickers, the latest last week when three Nigerians and an Indonesian faced a firing squad.
But while raids, arrests and punishments pick up, state funding for rehabilitation, that weans people off drugs and cuts demand, is dwindling.
That leaves thousands of people like Rizki with few affordable options in a country that within years has gone from being a drug transit point to one of South-East Asia’s biggest markets for narcotics.
“We need support in terms of budget to be able to rehabilitate all drug users in need,” Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indra Parawansa said.
“Our budget alone is not enough for that, it is experiencing a decline.”
The government estimates there are six million drug users in the country of 250 million people. Of those, more than 1 million are addicted to meth, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a 2013 report.
But less that 1% of dependent users got treatment in 2014 compared with a global average of 16%, it said.
Indonesian law mandates rehabilitation for people caught with small quantities of drugs. But many end up in crowded jails.
“Many of those who are in prison should not be sentenced to prison at all, they should be sent to rehab,” Indra said.
Indra's ministry aims to rehabilitate 15,000 drug users this year on a budget of 87 billion rupiah (RM26.6mil). Next year, it will only get funds to help 9,000, she said.
While rehabilitation funding has been cut, the president has tripled the budget of the national counter-narcotics agency, known as the BNN, to 2.1 billion rupiah (RM644,400). It also draws on the police budget.
A spokesman for Joko, asked about the cut to rehabilitation spending, said many areas were seeing tighter budgets, and it did not mean the president did not value rehabilitation.
“The president is concerned about how to prevent the spread in drug use and rehab programmes are part of that,” said the spokesman, Johan Budi.