Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Santo looks much older than 21. His emaciated body, attacked by the HIV virus, rotting teeth and patchy skin testify to years of drug abuse.
His dream of working in the hotel industry is shattered and he has become just another alarming statistic in Indonesia's creeping nightmare – an illegal drugs epidemic the Indonesian government has declared is a major nationwide threat.
A survey this year by the national narcotics body found that the number of drug abusers has jumped from 1 per cent to 3.9 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million inhabitants, compared with a year ago.
Officials attribute the escalation to soaring supplies which have pushed prices down and made the drugs affordable for youngsters and the less privileged.
At 5,000 rupiah (90 Singapore cents) a milligram, the price of low-grade heroin, is on a par with the cost of a meal in a decent restaurant. The price is a third of what it was eight years ago.
The Ministry of Health estimates the number of intravenous drugs users at 169,000, with more than one third HIV-positive. Other studies show that one out of every 50 Indonesians are drug users and two in 10 are involved in trafficking. Most users are aged between 15 and 30 but children as young as 12 have been caught using or trafficking.
The grim figures all add up to a drastic need for action but while trafficking is a capital offence – more than 30 people are on death row – the big syndicates remain out of reach.
Indeed, Indonesia's war against drugs has been criticised for being "half- baked" and rife with irregularities. Drug offences abound in inner city slums like Kampung Bali in Jakarta, where the unemployment rate is about 60 per cent, but drug distribution has expanded well beyond city centres into far-flung towns, leafy suburbs, schools and even prisons.
With drug-related cases accounting for 50 per cent of convicts behind bars, prisons are a hotbed for business. Jailed dealers stay in touch on their cell phones and drugs are smuggled in cookies or other food while corrupt guards turn a blind eye.
Although many drug traffickers are nabbed at airports, the scores of shipping ports are neglected. Said a narcotics police officer: "Drugs transported by air at the most account for 3 to 5 per cent of the narcotics distribution, the remaining 97 per cent is transported by sea." He estimated that a total of 60 tonnes of illegal substances hidden inside furniture products, tyres and other container goods are smuggled in every month through more than a hundred official entry points.
Deputy Director of the Narcotics Division in the National Police Senior Commissioner Adang Rohjana told The Straits Times: "It is nearly impossible to check all the containers. They are too big and just too many." And with notoriously corrupt Customs officials and police at shipping ports, observers said drug smuggling had continued unhindered for a long time.
Compounding the problem, some of the materials used to make psychotropic substances such as Ecstasy or methamphetamine are legally imported. Known as precursors, these chemicals are legally used for pharmaceutical and cosmetics products. Currently, 23 precursors of illegal drugs can enter Indonesia freely, making the country one of the world's biggest producers of Ecstasy. The authorities predict that between one and two million pills are produced each day.
Police units are also suspected of backing crime gangs, and few have been arrested. Worse still, the police or military are thought to often run the business themselves. Several addicts told The Straits Times that the residential compounds of the Military Regional Command across the country are notorious for being a "one-stop drugs store".