Iron bars a cage

No more prison for drug users, Supreme Court tells judges - a headline in yesterday's Jakarta Post. The 1997 narcotics law provides for the option of rehabilitation rather than prison for drug addicts, but this sentence is rarely offered.

Sounds like good news. But where are the rehab centres for the 100,000 or so drug addicts currently incarcerated? And who will pay? If history is a guide, there will be a mushrooming of 'commercial' rehab centres; anyone with a largish house will cram four or five three-high bunk beds into a bedroom, put bars on the windows, and charge as much as Rp 5 million ($400+) a month for 'rehabilitation'. This happened a decade ago, when parents looked for any way to 'get the junkies out of the house.' Several centres chained up the addicts (I personally saw a teenage girl in leg shackles in a rehab centre in North Sumatra). Many feed them 'legal' drugs to keep them sedated, adding another level of addiction.

We then asked which government entity is responsible for registering and monitoring such rehab centres. No one seemed to know.

My understanding is that this is the policy in Malaysia, which has set up 'boot camps' as rehab centres for addicts. Reports I have heard suggest that the regime there is worse than in prison.

There is ample evidence that rehab at best 'cures' 10% of voluntary 'patients', and little more than 0% of those who are forced. Even those who become 'clean' usually relapse within months. So we need a revolving door. Or we apply the option only to first time offenders (I think that is indeed the intent of the law), and lock up recidivists. Same difference!

This policy might empty the prisons, but will (I fear) do nothing to solve the problem. Indeed, I fear it make exacerbate human rights violations. Like it or not, legalization of drugs is the only solution.

Babé