The OSI International Harm Reduction Development Program publishes periodic newsflashes highlighting recent developments in international efforts to reduce harms associated with drug use.

Nationwide activism by current and former drug users and nongovernmental organizations marked June 26, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking in Indonesia. In Jakarta, approximately two hundred activists arrived at the national parliament house on four buses from all corners of the city and two other provinces. Covering their buses with banners and broadcasting their demand for an end to the incarceration of drug users, participants engaged in the symbolic release of drug users from three cages brought to the gates of the government to demonstrate for treatment rather than jail time.

Representatives from STIGMA, an NGO working to improve treatment options for drug users, were invited to talk to government officials and a meeting with national legislators has been scheduled. The organizers were featured on an hourlong radio talk show broadcast on 50 stations.

The Jakarta action was part of a national effort, with actions by users groups and harm reduction activists in Banten, Bali, Jakarta, Bandung, and several cities in West and East Java that received local and national press attention. Activist groups spoke out for the scale-up of methadone clinics, more rehabilitative alternatives to jail time, and an end to the criminalization of drug users, and gained the attention of local legislators, health officials, and media.

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For more information please contact Nick Bartlett, nicholas.bartlett@ucsf.edu, +62 813 20607539, or Bani Risset, our_stigma@yahoo.com, +62 21 75904240.