HumasUPNVJ - The anxiety of the Indonesian people about the damage to the younger generation caused by the dangers of narcotics abuse is felt to be increasing. This is due to the increasing prevalence of dealers and addicts of this addictive substance trade freely regardless of age.

The high number of unemployed during the current pandemic has also increased the number of new cases of drug abuse.

Therefore, as an effort to prevent drugs, UPNVJ together with Sukamto Widodo from the South Jakarta National Narcotics Agency (BNN) held an online seminar discussing "Drug Abuse Prevention" on Saturday (5/12/20). The seminar was attended by approximately 2,300 participants which included all new students at UPN Veteran Jakarta, UPN Veteran East Java, UPN Veteran Yogyakarta, Palangkaraya University and students at Nusa Cendana University.

In his discussion, Sukamto conveyed the strategy for dealing with narcotics starting from humanism or preventing it from increasing, rehabilitating it so that it would reduce, and empowering people to care. Then other preventive measures can be carried out by harder eradicating networks, carrying out interdictions and monitoring targets.

He also explained that the factors that cause a person to be vulnerable to drug abuse are not caused by a lack of knowledge about drugs and their consequences. The strongest risk can be from biological processes such as the environment from birth, mental illness, neglect, abuse, poor relationships with friends, and can be due to poor growth and development in an environment that has insufficient income.

It should be noted that 240 out of 10,000 Indonesian residents aged 15 to 64 years have been exposed to drug use and 180 out of 10,000 Indonesian residents aged 15 to 64 years have been exposed to drug use in the past year.

"In fact, more than 80% of addicts start using drugs at the age of 12 to 15 years," explained Sukamto.

Therefore, from the results of a survey conducted by the National Narcotics Agency, there are several things the community can do to prevent drug abuse by increasing supervision of places to hang out at night and places to play games, supervise smoking families, outreach to unemployed men of productive age. – 44 years old, and drug outreach on social media also needs to be improved.

Sukamto also explained that there are three choices in the morning for drug users in their lives, namely rehabilitation, prison or death. These three choices will be in front of the eyes of drug abusers in the future.

According to Sukamto, narcotics abuse affects brain function and causes behavioral disturbances that require help.

"Drug users are better off being rehabilitated than in prison, because the cause of narcotics is a chronic and recurrent brain disease which if not treated quickly will lead to death," said Sukamto.

There are three series of recovery or rehabilitation efforts, namely medical rehabilitation with detoxification, medico-psychiatric treatment and evaluation as well as therapy for co-morbidities or disorders. Second, social rehabilitation by changing the user's mindset and behavior, self-control as well as emotions and adaptability. Third, post-rehabilitation, namely relapse prevention , skills and productivity as well as reintegration into the wider community by socializing.

With some of these explanations, it is hoped that this will become knowledge and provision for students, and will understand the causes and effects of drug abuse which are not only detrimental to themselves but also troubling to the wider community.