This is the story of Maulana who was caught and tortured by the Indonesian police for possessing a small amount of crystal meth. Watch the video of Yohan Misero (LBH Masyarakat), member of the Drugreporter video network!
In Indonesia, if you are a person who use drugs, you have to report yourself to the government. Only by doing that, the law states, you will be hindered from prosecution.
At the level of implementation, the abovementioned concept is often belittled. Law enforcement seems to give no care about the right to health of a person who use drugs.
This is a story of Maulana, a client of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in Indonesia. As a participant of MMT, which is under Ministry of Health’s supervision, Maulana is considered has reported himself to the government.
Though, there is a vast distance between the law and the reality. In 2016, Maulana was caught by the police while he was possessing a small amount of crystal meth, a drug that is widely available in Jakarta now. He had to receive torture, extortion, and injustice by the police – a common practice in the drug law enforcement. He is lucky that he found an organization that provided free legal service for people who use drugs, just like him.
This situation with the confusing law will be more puzzling when the parliament pass the revision of the Indonesia’s criminal code. Since the revision copies the criminal acts from the current narcotics law, it is a threat to the continuity of the rehabilitation program, including this imperfect compulsory report system, because many ministry regulations on rehabilitation will lose its anchor in the law.
Yohan Misero, LBH Masyarakat
