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Data used by Indonesia to justify drug laws is 'questionable', say experts
The Guardian (Australia) - June 5, 2015
In an open letter published in The Lancet on Friday, the group of Indonesian experts write that the Indonesian government's policies of involuntary rehabilitation and the death penalty for drug users must be stopped "urgently".
The Indonesian government frequently cites statistics from its national narcotics board, which estimates illicit drug use prevalence to to be at 2.6% – equivalent to 4.5m people – and suggested as many as 50 drug-related deaths were occurring every day.
The authors wrote they had "serious concerns" about the validity of those estimates because the details and methods of the studies behind the data were not publicly accessible, and from the information that was available, the study methods were questionable.
"The Indonesian government, led by president Joko Widodo, has heralded its commitment to evidence-based policy making," the letter states.
"However, as researchers, scientists and practitioners, we have grave concerns that the government is missing an opportunity to implement an effective response to illicit drugs informed by evidence."
The 10 signatories to the letter, from institutes including the Indonesian Drug Users Network, the University of Indonesia's law faculty, and Jakarta's Atma Jaya HIV-Aids Research Centre, said the government must expand evidence-based interventions, such as opioid substitution therapy, needle-and-syringe programs and rehabilitation programs based on science.
Indonesia's punitive drugs strategy has drawn global attention this year after 15 drug criminals were sentenced to death and executed by firing squad, six in January and nine in April.
Widodo has frequently said there was "no excuse" for drug traffickers and that tough approaches were needed to combat what he described as the country's "drugs emergency".
But a signatory to the Lancet letter, an HIV researcher called Professor Irwanto, said a tough, war-on-drugs approach had proven to be a global failure.
"Obtaining valid estimates of drug use is not an easy, straightforward process, yet we need to make sure that national policies are based on evidence that is thoroughly peer-reviewed and transparent," Irwanto said. "Each human life matters. Productive human lives may be compromised by misguided policies."
Dr Ignatius Praptoraharjo, a researcher at the faculty of medicine at Gadjah Mada University, said there was an "ethical obligation" to implement evidence-based drug policies.
"But despite the proven success of these interventions, political commitment and funds are lacking, and current punitive strategies in Indonesia do not provide enough space for meaningful health programs," Praptoraharjo said.
"Our limited funds are instead being used to bolster fear-based approaches, which effectively drive people in need further away from health programs."
The authors called on the government to be more transparent in its drugs policy data, and to turn away from "counterproductive" measures in favour of a drugs policy based on current scientific evidence.
Professor of Asian law and director of the University of Melbourne's centre for Indonesian Law, Tim Lindsey, said he did not doubt the Lancet letter would reach Widodo, or that it would embarrass him.
"Similar criticism to Indonesia's drug policy and questions of the data and statistics used by the president have been in the media there for some months," Lindsey said.
"But now that this letter has come out it gives an expert, authoritative weight to those criticisms that will further embarrass the president. There are rumours that he was annoyed and angry about the fact these drugs statistics may be unreliable after the Indonesia media first began reporting it."
However, Lindsey said it would not mean Widodo would back away from his populist, hard-line approach. His political positions was vulnerable and weak, Lindsey said, because he was yet to gain a reliable majority within the legislature.
Although Widodo's drugs approach had been criticised by the media, public opinion was still largely in favour of the death penalty for serious offences, such as terrorism and drug crimes, Lindsey said.
"If he's executing people without even bothering to read their applications for clemency, and if the data on which he bases those drugs executions for being justified is shonky, it puts him a position of having executed people based on flawed data," Lindsey said.
"But it will be very hard for him to back down given he has used executing people as a way of showing people he is a strong president."
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