DRUG BUSTS NO GAUGE OF PREVALENCE, POLICE ADMIT

JAKARTA (JP): City police have recorded 412 drug cases in the first seven
months of this year, an officer said on Tuesday.

Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis said the figure was
meaningless since there were hundreds of such cases which went unrecorded
during the same period.

He, therefore, believed that the accurate number was much higher than the
figure recorded by his office, which supervised the entire capital and
Bekasi, Depok and Tangerang.

"If Indonesia is a hot market for drugs, then Jakarta is the core of the
nation's drug network.

We're doing our best, but what's the use of all our work if drug dealers
are able to leave jail in no more than six months, whereas they're actually
guilty and sentenced to years in jail," Zainuri told reporters.

"Some even come out after three months, and that's it. They begin their
drug businesses all over again. Our work is to catch the dealers, but what
are the law institutions doing?"

Quoting city police data, Zainuri said that the number of drug cases
handled by the police had shown a frightening increase in the past four years.

In 1995, for example, the number of drug cases handed over to the
prosecutor's office totaled 194. It grew to 249 cases the following year,
and soared to 605 in 1997, with 632 cases last year, he said.

Drug cases reported to the police by the public remained at an average of
between 200 and 500 cases per year during the 1995 -1998 period.

"Unless every drug dealer or drug user serves the entirety of his or her
sentence, there is nothing much that can be done to curb the growth of drug
sales in the capital," Zainuri said.

"I totally agree that drug offenders should be awarded with death
sentences. We cannot get tough on drugs just by preaching."

Article 60 of Law No.5/1997 on psychotropic substances carries a maximum
penalty of 15 years in jail or a fine of up to Rp 200 million (US$26,666).

Meanwhile, a staffer at the National Police Forensic Laboratory (Puslabfor)
said he and his colleagues, including those stationed at other similar
laboratories nationwide, handled an average of 300 drug cases per month.

"One drug case usually involves more than one person. When we say we have
our hands full with drug cases, we are not joking," the staffer, who asked
for anonymity, said.

Aside from the popular use of designer drugs, such as ecstasy and
shabu-shabu (crystal metamphetamine), Jakarta has also witnessed a
significant growth in the smuggling of dried marijuana into the city this
year.

One of the biggest hauls in a single raid by Jakarta Police detectives in
the past few years was last month's seizure of nearly 1.5 tons of marijuana
from Medan, North Sumatra, worth about Rp 3 billion ($428,570) hidden in 12
sealed oil drums.

City police chief of detectives Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo said four
Acehnese had organized the delivery of the marijuana-filled oil drums into
the capital from Medan.

In early October, Penjaringan Police detectives in North Jakarta seized 929
kilograms of marijuana, worth about Rp 1.85 billion from four of seven
suspected drug dealers, also in a single raid.

In mid-September, police here confiscated 602 kilograms of marijuana with
an estimated street value of Rp 1.2 billion from four suspects.