At least 68 young people were hospitalised on the island of Sulawesi last week after taking these pills. Two children died.

"It was relaxing as if I was flying. After that, I lost consciousness. When I came to again, I found myself lying here," a 16-year told kompas.com last Wednesday.

Despite being illegal, the pills are widely distributed in many parts of Indonesia through drugstores and markets. They are ostensibly for the relief pain including headaches and toothache.

20 pills can commonly be purchased for just US$2.

"The government should stop its distribution," said Doctor Felix Gunawan, director of the Association of Voluntary Health Services of Indonesia, an association of Catholic hospitals.

He also called on Catholic hospitals to buy drugs only from official vendors certified by the government's National Agency for Drug and Food Control.

"Patients who want to buy medicinal drugs must have a prescription from medical doctors," he told ucanews.com on 20 September.

Pharmaceutical observer Anthony Charles Sunarjo said the effects of PCC pills if used in excess will make users hallucinate and lose control of their behaviour.

On September 18-19 police confiscated more than 100,000 pills from several locations and closed down Central and West Java factories which produce them.

They have arrested dozens of suspected dealers of the illegal medication in Kendari, capital of Southeast Sulawesi province.

They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Source

• Seemit
• UCAnews
• Image: SearchHome Remedies.com

"All the strength of the Catholic Church must be used to support the fight against drug abuse," said Archbishop Agustinus Agus of Pontianak, based in the capital of West Kalimantan province.

According to Archbishop Agus, a massive movement is needed to tackle drug abuse in the provinces. "And the Catholic Church must take part in it," he said, adding that the church will offer counselling programs and continually raise awareness about the problem.

Through the use of digital media, drugs have managed to spread into remote areas in Kalimantan, Archbishop Agus told ucanews.com after a meeting of Dayak leaders April 7 in Pontianak.

"Drugs lead their users to doing criminal acts, and this worries local people," he said.

The Dayak people have traditionally lived in riverside or hilly areas of Borneo, an island which Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei.

Many Dayaks converted to Christianity since the 19^th century.

West Kalimantan Governor Cornelis, who is also the chairman of the National Assembly of Dayak Tribes, said that drug trafficking in his province was worse than other Kalimantan province because it borders with Malaysia's state of Sarawak.

"As a border area, we are prone to drug trafficking. We are also prone to terrorism," said Cornelis.

Source

• ucanews.com
• Image: abc.net.au

Problem drinking is a major contributor to crime and a significant cause of public disorder and health problems in communities and the Alcohol Reform Bill will address these problems by empowering local communities to determine where and how alcohol is sold, increase personal and parental responsibility for the supply of alcohol, and introduce a risk-based licence fee regime, Collins said.

However The Salvation army believes the updated Alcohol Reform Bill does little more than pay lip service to a problem that is wrecking lives and haemorrhaging billions of tax dollars.

"The Government appears to expect its citizens to continue to meet the exorbitant social and fiscal costs of abuse by declining to provide robust legislation to mitigate the damage", Salvation Army social policy spokesman Major Campbell Roberts says.

"There is little evidence the Government wants to address the real problem driving the heavy culture so damaging to society, and this is deeply worrying," he says.

"The Salvation Army's deep and long-held concerns over how alcohol is sold and consumed comes from its close relationship with those most badly affected by the misuse of alcohol".

Director of the National Addiction Centre Doug Sellman says the Alcohol Reform Bill is "too timid".

"It is worse than weak, the new bill is shocking," he said.

"It is inexcusable that the government is too timid and too captured by the big alcohol-related businesses to tackle the real problem driving the heavy drinking culture in New Zealand - the vested interests of a powerful alcohol industry which will continue to enjoy relatively unregulated free market conditions to push their drug products at New Zealanders."

Source

• Media from Salvation Army
• Media from the Minister of Justice
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: The Healthy Teenager