Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A lawmaker in Indonesia – where people caught in possession of small amounts of drugs can be given the death penalty – has proposed the country legalise cannabis and then export it around the world.
Politician Rafli, who represents the conservative Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and is also a member of a commission in the House of Representatives to oversee state-owned enterprise, trade and investment, made the suggestion in a meeting with the country’s Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto.
Rafli reportedly suggested that the country should legalise cannabis and then export the drug around the world.
He said the drug can be used “for pharmaceutical needs” and said the drug, which is illegal under Indonesian law, grows easily in the Aceh region of the country.
Rafli added that the country should consider the potential in exporting cannabis and offered help in finding land to grow the plant if the proposal is accepted.
He reportedly said that “marijuana is a global conspiracy” and that “the most deranged and crazy in prisons aren’t the ones who [used] cannabis”.
Minister Suparmanto reportedly said he would look into the potential of cannabis as an export product.
Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency reported there were 3.6 million people using drugs in the country in December 2019, with 63 percent of those using cannabis.
Drug traffickers in Indonesia can be punished with the death sentence and the country is known for his severe punishment of drug offences.
Of the foreign inmates currently on death row in Indonesia, all but one have convicted of drug offences. They include Lindsay Sandiford, a former legal secretary from Teeside who was sentenced to death in January 2013 by a court in Indonesia after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine into Bali.
In 2005, nine Australian citizens known as the Bali Nine were found guilty of drug smuggling in Indonesia and the two ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed.
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