IT'S ALL THE RAVE

Indonesia is facing an epidemic of drug-taking and HIV infection among
its young people, writes Tom Hyland.

The relentless techno beat is so loud your insides vibrate. Strobe and
laser lights flash across the crowd of maybe 5000 that surges in waves
across the vast dance floor. It's 2am on a Saturday and amid the noise
and crush, the mood in the Millennium nightclub in north Jakarta is a
strangely mellow mix of joy and energy.

The bar is doing a slow trade; the preferred intoxicant for the young
middle-class Indonesians who make up the crowd is ecstasy, the party
drug.

A few kilometres south, just off Jalan Thamrin - Jakarta's main avenue
with its international hotels, restaurants and high-rise office towers
- - is Kampung Bali, a densely populated low-income area of simple
houses, narrow lanes, mosques and food stalls. For an increasing
number of its young people, the drug of choice is low-grade heroin
known as putaw. It's cheap and plentiful and potentially deadly in
more ways than one.

The public health clinic in Kampung Bali recently tested 98 injecting
drug users for HIV - 91 tested positive. Another Jakarta study found
that, of 210 users, 184 were sharing needles.

Indonesia faces a national health disaster - a report in Tempo
magazine this week referred to the country as "A nation of addicts" -
which belies its reputation as the conservative home of the world's
largest Muslim community.

"It's a threat that could kill an entire generation," says Henry
Yosodiningrat, a Jakarta lawyer who heads an anti-drugs lobby group
and is a member of the government's National Narcotics Agency.
"There's not a school or district anywhere across the country where
drugs are not used."

Figures on the number of illegal drug users paint an alarming picture
of what until five years ago was being called a hidden epidemic. In
February last year, a report by Melbourne's Macfarlane Burnet
Institute for Medical Research and Public Health estimated there were
between 1.3 million and 2 million drug users in Indonesia, with up to
1 million of these injecting. Some local estimates cite 4 million
users which, if true, means about one in every 50 Indonesians takes
illegal drugs.

In 1996, Jakarta's RSKO hospital, specialising in drug dependence,
treated 2000 patients; three years later the figure was 9000. And the
age of users is falling, with most now between 16 and 25.

In 1995, only 2 per cent of new HIV/AIDS infections nationwide were
due to drug use; by 2001 the figure was 20 per cent. In the same year
47 per cent of injecting drug users at RSKO hospital tested positive
for HIV. Similar findings elsewhere suggest needle sharing will soon
surpass unsafe sex as the most common method of catching HIV.

Five years ago, according to experts, Indonesia was in denial.
Officials argued that Indonesia was simply a transit point for drugs.
Not any more. Now, while there's still no agreed co-ordinated strategy
for dealing with the problem, there is a wider debate and greater
public awareness.

The full range of drugs available in the West, and more, is used here.
At the Millennium nightclub, ecstasy, heroin and methamphetamines are
offered for sale. So is ganja, the premium marijuana from Sumatra.

Methamphetamine, a potent form of speed known locally as shabu-shabu,
is relatively new. It can be injected, inhaled or taken orally,
increasing the duration and intensity of sex and reducing inhibitions,
making users prone to risk-taking. It is said to be popular among
prostitutes and their clients in the massive sex industry and is
cheaply produced in backyard factories.

There's a caste system among Indonesian drug users, says a foreign
health worker. "The middle class use ecstasy, but lots of poorer
people use shabu. It's the poor brother of cocaine," he says.

Despite growing awareness of the problem, Indonesia faces unique
obstacles and some reluctance in dealing with it.

" Political conflict, power struggles and widespread corruption are
influencing how the drug related HIV/AIDS crisis should be tackled,"
the Macfarlane Burnet report said.

"The government needs to make a moral commitment," says Yosodiningrat.
"But one obstacle to obtaining that commitment is that the syndicates
have a lot of money to buy officials and this is a most corrupt country."

While the local press regularly reports massive drug seizures and
police stage well-publicised raids on some notorious nightclubs, big
dealers can bribe their way out of trouble in a country where police
and courts can be bought by the highest bidder.

Compounding the problem is evidence that elements of the underfunded
police and military are involved in the drug trade - and are willing
to fight public turf wars for their share of it.