Drugs Threaten Indonesia’s National Defense

Drugs are one of the factors that can threaten national security. The phenomenon of drugs is a multidimensional phenomenon, related to all aspects of life, starting from health, law, social and economics.

The national survey in 2021 found that the prevalence of drug abuse in Indonesia increased by 0.15 percent. The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) notes that the number of drug abusers in Indonesia is estimated to reach 4.8 million people in 2021.

Drug abuse can damage the next generation of the nation because it is undermined by addictive substances that destroy brain nerves. If this is allowed, it will certainly have an impact on the loss of a nation’s generation (lost generation) in the future.

Learn from the history of the Opium War in China

The negative impact of drug trafficking for a nation state has been proven hundreds of years ago. China had to mortgage its sovereignty to Britain, America and France because it lost in the Opium War which took place in the period 1839 to 1860.

The Chinese nation itself has actually known opium since the 15th century. However, the Qing Dynasty outlawed the inhalation of opium in 1729 because of its harmful effects.

The Opium Wars arose from China’s attempts to suppress the opium trade. British traders illegally exported opium mainly from India to China since the 18th century.

The trade increased dramatically around 1820. Widespread addiction in China caused serious social and economic disruption there.

The defeat in the Opium War resulted in China’s sovereignty being undermined from the outside. Based on the Nanjing Agreement made after the opium war, China was forced to mortgage Hong Kong to the British, and open its market to invasions of products from the West.

Threats to Indonesia

Drugs are used as a tool for non-military (asymmetrical) war against Indonesia. BNN said 4.8 million Indonesians are already drug users.

Coordinator of Indonesia Narcotics Watch (INW), Josman Naibaho said there were efforts to weaken Indonesia’s younger generation through narcotics smuggling. If you want to dominate Indonesia in the next 20 years, destroy Indonesia’s younger generation first.

According to meusprecos, international cooperation is not optimal because there are attempts to destroy Indonesia. According to him, there is an attempt of non-military (asymmetric) war to conquer Indonesia by certain countries through drugs.

Therefore, drug crimes can be categorized as a state threat in the non-military field (Asymmetric Warfare). As a non-military threat, the problem of drug abuse and illicit trafficking is a shared responsibility, not just certain apparatus. Several operators handed over filled urine bottles to the drug examiner team for examination. It can be seen on their faces that they are curious about the examination being carried out and maybe they are afraid.