AFTER THE TSUNAMI, ACEH'S YOUNG TURN TO DRUGS

In Aceh, boredom and hopelessness are rife.

TEENAGE tsunami survivors in Indonesia's stricken Aceh province are
turning to marijuana to escape the trauma and despair.

"Marijuana use has become much more prevalent since the tsunami,"
says David Gordon, director of Yakita, Indonesia's largest drug
rehabilitation agency. "Kids are starting to use ganja from a younger
age and on a more regular basis."

Aceh, where an estimated 170,000 people were killed and 500,000 made
homeless by the Boxing Day tsunami, is Indonesia's most religiously
conservative state, with alcohol prohibited and social conduct
governed by Islam's sharia law.

Despite this, its fertile hills provide most of Indonesia's
marijuana, much of it from plantations run by criminal syndicates,
reportedly under the protection of the Indonesian military or the
rebel Free Aceh Movement.

Mr Gordon, who has just finished an investigation into drug use,
estimated use among teenagers had doubled since the tsunami, with
about 15 per cent regularly using it.

"Everybody we asked spoke of youth being more out of control now," he
said. "They're traumatised, there's not enough jobs, there's nothing
for them to do, so they're looking for some kind of escape."

Selling the drug had become extremely profitable, he said.

Udin, a former heavy marijuana user, said the drug, known as "bakong"
in local slang, had steadily increased in price as demand had grown.

The pre-tsunami price of 700,000 rupiah ($A94) a kilo had risen to 1
million rupiah.

"There are more people smoking since the tsunami, you can see them
all over the place," he said. "It's easier for kids to get into it
when they're mentally unstable. They're trying to run away from their
problems."

As well as being smoked, marijuana had traditionally been used as an
Acehnese cooking supplement, in curry dishes such as gulai daging and
in coffee.

Udin said police generally turned a blind eye to drug dealers in
return for a cut of their earnings. In a province where 70,000 people
are living in tents pitched in fields of mud, 100,000 in cramped
emergency quarters, curbing recreational drug use and addiction is a
low priority.

UNICEF's head of psychosocial services, Isaac Jacob, said Aceh's
rising drug problem among children as young as 13 had to be viewed as
a "risk factor" rather than as a major issue in itself, given the
huge problems facing the province.

He said adults and teenagers were using the drug because of boredom,
hopelessness, and to escape the tsunami's grim legacy, which left
virtually no family unscathed.

To help, UNICEF runs psychosocial "healing sessions", reaching up to
50,000 young people in schools and village "child centres". Most
respond well, but about 1000 have required further attention.

"Their symptoms are aggression, completely withdrawing from social
activities, dropping out of school," he said.

One psychologist, Untung Rifai, is a facilitator for UNICEF's
psychosocial program, leading teens through healing sessions where
they chant positive affirmations, sing songs and express themselves
through poetry and drawing.

"It's providing a window for them to say what they're feeling
inside," he said. "The children have this sense of anger, of dissatisfaction."