Forced rehabilitation of drug users in Indonesia not a solution

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Forced rehabilitation of drug users in Indonesia not a solution

3 July 2015

Earlier this year, Indonesia executed 14 people, including Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, for drug offences. President Joko Widodo portrayed the executions as the ultimate weapon in an expansive “war on drugs” deployed to protect the country’s young generation from an alleged “national drug emergency”.

But his policy is harming the very people he claims he wishes to protect.

A problematic approach

Widodo’s tough approach does not only apply to drug traffickers. The Indonesian government, through its anti-drug agency, the National Narcotics Board (BNN), is pushing compulsory treatment for people with drug dependence. This coercive approach is jeopardising health gains made by existing harm reduction programs and is fertile ground for corruption and abuse.

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