15,000 people die of narcotic drugs every year

Palu (ANTARA News) - Around 15,000 people die every year in Indonesia because of narcotic drugs, the country's state minister for sports and youth affairs Adhyaksa Dault said here on Saturday. 

Compounded by the number of deaths caused by HIV/AIDS the problem was like a social tsunami as what was seen might just be a tip of an iceberg, he said in his speech at a ceremony to mark the confirmation of Drugs, HIV/AIDS-free youth cadres of Central Sulawesi province. 

Before around 1,000 youths and university students the minister said that the two problems required a serious attention from all community elements. 

Efforts to overcome the problems must be taken jointly and continuously in view of their crippling impact on the nation, he said. 

He said that cigarette smoking was one of ways that could lead to drug addition and therefore he called on youths, school and university students who had not been addicted to cigarette smoking to avoid doing it. 

To those who have been addicted to smoking he appealed to immediately stop it. 

He said school students were very vulnerable to drugs and therefore he called on their parents and family members to conduct tight monitoring on them. 

Central Sulawesi governor Paliudju said that his province was very vulnerable to drugs distribution because it was an open region providing easy access for people from other regions to come to and go from there. 

He said in his written address to the meeting that the number of drugs users in the region had reached more than five percent of the total number of youths in the region. 

In view of that he called on all religious, community and social organization leaders to work together with the government to fight the danger. 

On HIV/AIDS the governor said until the end of last year a total of 71 HIV/AIDS cases had been found in the region consisting of 60 HIV and 11 AIDS cases. 

He said those who were positive with AIDS had already died. "The number of HIV/AIDS cases in the region is increasing from year to year and therefore joint efforts by the government and all community elements would be needed to deal with the problem," he said.