Jakarta – Expressing his concern over the high number of military personnel and police officers being picked up for drug use, Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Marciano Norman vowed Wednesday to take strict action against all offenders.
"We need to clean up our own backyard as the first step [in the fight against drugs]," he said at the opening of a joint counselling program for 200 officers at the city police headquarters.
According to Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo, more than 75 police officers and 35 military personnel were caught either selling or using illicit drugs in the past five years.
Marciano said any soldier or police officer caught dealing or using illegal drugs would lose their commission and face the courts.
"We regularly have our officers provide us with urine samples to ensure they are not taking drugs," Mariano said.
He said he expected the one-day counselling program to teach officers of the dangers of drug use and encourage participants to share with others their skills and knowledge on drugs.
Last year, West Jakarta Police arrested a detective from the Jakarta Police narcotics division, Adj. Comr. Mangatur Sianturi, and one other officer for drug trafficking.
Timur lamented that the country's war against drugs was not only hampered by unscrupulous military and police personnel, citing budgetary constraints as another major hurdle.
"Out of the 650 cases we are faced with each month, we only have the funds to handle 250 cases," he claimed.
Facing these obstacles, the police say they make best of the fund by allocating a portion to hold prevention programs such as the counselling.
According to research conducted by Jakarta Police, the drug cases in the first half of this year; double the 2,960 cases uncovered in the same period last year.
"Over the past five years, City Police recorded 37,000 drug cases involving 46,000 suspects with more than half of them were between 15 and 27 years old," he said.
The National Narcotics Agency record 51,000 drug-related deaths each year, while the number of drug users in the country hit 3.6 million last year, including 1 million registered drug addicts. (not)