Narcotics Agency Wants to Have 1,000 Rehabilitation Centers

Jakarta (Antara) - Head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Commissioner General Anang Iskandar wants Indonesia to have around 1,000 rehabilitation centers to accommodate about four million drug users. "Now, there are 90 rehabilitation centers, we want to increase the number to 1,000. It will be useful to accommodate four million drug users who have not been rehabilitated," he said here on Friday after signing a memorandum of understanding between BNN and 13 community-based addiction rehabilitation institutions. The number of illegal drug users in Indonesia is around four million people, or 2.2 percent of the country's total population. Of the total drug addicts, only about 18,000 people were rehabilitated every year. "The government is only able to rehabilitate 2,000 drug users, but the community manage to rehabilitate 16,000 users annually. Therefore, we encourage a synergy between BNN and the community in carrying out rehabilitation efforts," he said. BNN has allocated budget to help the 13 community-based addiction rehabilitation institutions, which have programs of One Stop Centre (OSC), Community-based Unit (CBU) and Outreach Centre (ORC). The addiction rehabilitation institutions which signed the MOU are Bani Syifa and Al Islami Islamic boarding schools, Harapan Kasih Foundation, Kharisma, Kasih Indonesia Foundation, Suci Hati NGO, Wado Community-based Unit, Master Community-based Unit, Rumah Kasih and Pemulihan Serambi Salomo, Lingkaran Harapan Banua, Bunga Bakung Foundation, Metanoia Papua community-based unit, and Nahdlatul Ulama advantage institution. (*)