TEMPO.CO, Kupang – Latest data from the National Anti-narcotics Agency’s (BNN) Kupang chapter have revealed that the number of drug abusers in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) has reached 43,000. The BNN is now rapidly disseminating information on the danger of narcotics to combat drugs in the province.
“The number of drug abusers in NTT has reached an alarming level at 43,000 people,” BNN NTT chief Aloysius Dando told Tempo on Thursday, September 4, 2014. According to a 2010 census, the province’s population is 4.68 million people.
Aloysius said the province’s capital of Kupang saw the highest figure, followed by Sikka, Bely, Labuan Bajo and West Manggarai regencies with most of the drug abusers being students, civil servants, and policemen.
Aloysius also called on parents in the province to report to them upon finding their children had fallen victim to narcotics so they could receive immediate assistance at a narcotics rehabilitation facility in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
He said the BNN NTT had been facing difficulties to rehabilitate drug abusers in the province due to the absence of its own rehabilitation unit—despite their already asking the Health Ministry for consent to use the idle Kupang Mental Hospital.
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