Indonesia is probably the country with the strictest anti-drug laws in
the world.
In Indonesia, you don't have to be caught with any drugs to face a jail
sentence of several years (which is almost a death sentence, as any
person imprisoned for a considerable length of time will likely contract
malaria, or HIV as a consequence of prison rape, or face other severe
health problems).
In Indonesia, all the authorities need to file charges against you, is
proof that you have been using drugs.
Such proof is easy to come by. The Indonesian police (possibly because
of grants from the American DEA or comparable Australian law
enforcement agencies) is well equipped with on the spot laboratories for urine
tests through which it is easily determined whether you have been taking
drugs in the past few days.
They also can perform hair analyses to determine whether you have been
taking drugs the past few months or years.
The Indonesian police uses this equipment to randomly test locals and
foreigners. In Indonesia, one does not have to be an individual suspect
of drug use for being forced by the Indonesian police to undergo drug
tests.
The police regularly raid entertainment venues and block all doors, and
the only way out is via the mobile drug lab of the police. Locals are
so afraid of these raids that most discos throughout Indonesia have
closed in 2005 for a lack of visitors.
When police raided the Iguana disco in Medan in summer 2005, many local
youths jumped through the disco's glass walls, even though the Iguana
was located on an upper floor in a department store. There were several
deaths and dozens of injured.
There was no public criticism of the police at all. In Indonesia, the
police is never criticized for being too harsh, only for being too
lenient with criminals. Such criticism of too much leniency obviously plays
into the hands of the policy, as they can adopt ever more brutal
measures, under the pretext of the public allegedly demanding this.
In no year for decades has the Indonesian prison population swelled as
drastically as in 2005, and the strict implementation of anti-drug laws
was a major reason for this.
It is obvious that US pressure has been a driving force in the adoption
of stricter drug laws throughout Asia, just as it has been in South
America.
They have tried a US-mandated strict implementation of laws against
drug use in South America. This has lead to a total overcrowding of
prisons, resulting in appalling conditions.
In Brazil, they have taken the logical step: decriminalizing drug use.
Drug use has also been decriminalized for a number of years in most
countries of Europe which the US cannot blackmail as blatantly as
countries in Asia.
Drug use anyway doesn't fit the standard definition of a crime. Crime
per se is something that victimizes other people.
Drug users only victimize themselves. But so do people who are
overweight and continue eating too many calories per day. We can offer both
groups of people good advice, but to go beyond that is not appropriate for
a human society that cherishes personal freedom.
There are other reasons as well why Indonesia should liberalize its
drug laws. Because, to have such strict anti-drug laws, and to implement
them so harshly, is hurting Indonesia's attractiveness, both for foreign
tourists and residents, and in the eyes of rich Indonesians.
Fact is, people don't want to visit police states, and they do not want
to live in police states. Fact is also that a large number of people,
non-Indonesians and Indonesians, like to use drugs.
For them, the Indonesian message is clear. It's not a message of
stopping to take drugs. It's a message of going somewhere else. In most
countries of the developed world, with the exception of the US and
Australia, you can openly smoke a joint in front of a police precinct, and
nothing will happen. In many European countries, rave parties are publicly
announced, and it is understood that everybody who is participating is
using ecstasy.
Globalization brings it with it, that in the future, those countries
are most likely to prosper which a large number of people with money will
find most attractive. And on charts that compare the quality of life
ratings of many countries, Indonesia could do with gaining some points.
For example by not messing with people who have personal drug use
habits.
