Ade Mardiyati

Former drug addicts try to see more to life. (Photo: Yudhi Sukma Wijaya, JG)

Fighting Against Addiction

Strains of British rock band Queen’s “I Want to Break Free” drifted from a small room, where three men in their early 20s seemed totally involved in the instruments they were playing. The drummer closed his eyes and pounded the kit on the refrain, as if truly wanting to break free.

“This is one of the activities here — playing music,” said Bambang Styawan of the Rehabilitation and Therapy Unit (Unitra) in Sukabumi, West Java, which treats drug and alcohol addiction.

The campus, as they call the unit, is managed by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), which is also headed by the National Police chief.

Each month, the unit receives Rp 2 million ($194) per resident from the government. “It covers their rooms, three meals a day, medical checks and nutritious food every week,” said Ni Ketut Suartini, known as Ketut, the unit’s head of human resources.

When we visited earlier this month, Unitra was home to 197 residents — all male, all receiving help to end their dependence on such substances such as morphine, benzodiazephine, THC (the main psychoactive substance found in Cannabis), methampetamine, amphetamine and alcohol.

“We rarely have female residents here,” Ketut said. Her assistant, Peter Bunjani, explained that was because the unit did not have counselors who specialized in dealing with female addicts.

Data from Unitra shows that most of its residents were morphine users, with 101 treated for morphine abuse in 2007 and 252 in 2008.

Patients are usually committed to Unitra’s care by their families. After being reported to the BNN by a family member or neighbor, the drug addict is picked up by a task force from the agency.

“Mostly they come here because they are forced to, not because they want to,” Ketut said. The unit is kept locked and the patients are constantly guarded to prevent them leaving.

A new resident, Erik, was picked up by the task force after his mother called the agency. “I threatened someone on the phone and said I was going to get him,” Erik said. “My mother heard that and immediately contacted BNN.”

The 26-year-old has been at the unit for only a week and is still on the detoxification program, which usually lasts for two to three weeks.

Before coming to Unitra, Erik has already been in and out of other rehabilitation centers. He said he was first introduced to heroin by senior students at his Catholic school in 1996, and has used drugs regularly since.

“They taught me how to use it and I liked it,” he said. “My ex-wife is also an addict. She used heroin and is now in a rehab center in Malaysia.”

After detoxification, patients move to the entry unit. At this stage, a psychologist and psychiatrist will discuss with the patient’s family whether he should be taken care of under one of two programs.

The primary program uses a therapeutic community approach, in which patients live together and are given tasks or responsibilities in an attempt to help them with any personality disorders or emotional and interpersonal problems.

“On the other hand, the religious program puts more emphasis on bringing the patient closer to God by praying every day,” said Asep Rahmat, one of four teachers in the religious program. “But at the moment we have it for Muslims only. We are opening a religious program for Christians soon.”

Patients can spend up to one year at the center to rid themselves of their addiction and learn livelihood skills for when they return to society, Bambang said.

“We teach them skills that can help them survive and become independent in society,” Bambang said. “We have training on such things as auto repairs and printing.”

However, relapse is a risk and some patients return to the rehabilitation unit after only a few months back in society, Bambang said.

“If this happens a lot of times, then we will refer them to another rehab center.”

Andy, for instance, is not a new face on the Unitra campus. He spent 13 months at the unit before returning to his family in July last year.

“But then I was tempted to use drugs again,” the 30-year-old father of two said. “Now I’m back and have been here for two months now.”

Andy also learned about drugs from someone close to him. “In 1993, my neighbor in the area where I used to live introduced me to heroin,” he said.

After being given his first tastes of the drug for free, Andy had to pay for what had quickly become an addiction, so he began to steal things from his parents’ house that he could sell to afford his daily habit.

“It cost Rp 80,000 per 0.1 gram at that time. I spent Rp 800,000 per day because I used 1 gram every day,” he said. “If I hadn’t spent the money on that, I would probably have a house in Pondok Indah [an upmarket South Jakarta suburb] by now.”

Now that he is back at the center, Andy’s wife has to support their family on her own. “My wife is a taxi driver,” he said. “She didn’t know I was an addict when I married her.”

Another resident is 32-year-old Jefri. Having been in the center for only 12 days, detoxifying, Jefri is finding the withdrawal symptoms difficult to cope with.

In 2007, the North Sumatran was arrested for drug use and jailed for a year.

However, Jefri said, jail neither weaned him off his addiction or discouraged him from it.

“Prison is heaven for drug users,” said Jefri, who was incarcerated in East Jakarta. “You can find all kinds of drugs. Even some of the prison officers used too, with us. They loved shabu [methamphetamine] and they drank.”

Jefri’s wife has no idea where he is at the moment, he said.

“She must think I’m in jail again because I haven’t been home for almost two weeks,” he said.

“She can wait.”

Former Addict Now Helps Others Try to Kick Their Habits

As a child, Aldi Novrudi never knew what his father and his many neatly dressed male visitors were doing at the family home in Pondok Indah each afternoon.

“Every day after my siblings and I finished studying, I would see my father open something wrapped in a huge newspaper sheet,” the 28-year-old said. “Then some 10 to 15 men came and each got something from my father.”

Later Aldi learned that “something” had been marijuana.

“When I became an addict myself, I could say that it was probably around half a kilo that he had every day to distribute to those people.”

Growing up in a family that was no stranger to drugs and alcohol, Aldi started taking pills as a fourth-grader, when a neighbor offered them to him.

“My sister was an addict and my father was not only an addict but a dealer, too,” Aldi said. “And my uncle showed me how to drink. I had whisky at that time.”

Every week, Aldi would take drugs and drink with his friends. His habit got worse over the years, he said.

“In my first year of junior high, I got to know marijuana,” he said.

By the time Aldi was 17, his father had given up drugs and become very religious. The family tried to help Aldi combat his own drug and alcohol problems by sending him to rehabilitation centers, but the treatments failed.

“By the age of 18, I had known and tried almost all kinds [of illicit drugs] and I got kicked out of home,” Aldi said.

For the next five years, he lived on the street and did whatever he could to keep himself supplied with drugs.

“I have tried different professions, from parking attendant to thief.”

In 2003, his sister contacted a friend of hers who was then working at a hospital for drug addicts.

“There weren’t cost-free rehab centers like today,” he said. “Unless you came from a poor family and the government paid for you, you had to pay more than Rp 2 million per month to stay in the center.”

His sister’s friend helped Aldi get admitted by faking documents that represented him as a patient from a “poor” family, and thus eligible for government funding. Aldi completed the program successfully.

“Then BNN recruited me and made me the manager of the primary program here,” he said. Aldi is now married and said he now had plans for his life.

“When I look back, I feel grateful for what I have now,” he said. “I will never allow myself to make silly decisions again. There was just too much pain I had to endure and I’m not willing to go through that again.”

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