Bali is in the grip of a drug crisis verging on a drug state emergency with drug abuse cases reaching 62,457 last year, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said Monday, Aug. 7.
Pastika expects the number of cases to be far higher.
“That number is what’s recorded, just the tip of the iceberg. The actual amount is a lot, it could be three to four times more,” he said, as reported by Antara Bali.
He pointed to a steady increase year-on-year, with 61,353 cases recorded in 2015, as evidence of the ‘state of emergency.’
Pastika announced the government would expand efforts to ‘facilitate drug abuse prevention’ and funding to the National Narcotics Agency (BNNP) Bali office.
“BNNP really needs support … so we have to create a legal umbrella so we can help them with their regional revenue budget,” he said.
Bali is often seen as a hotspot for drug crime on the fringes of the booming tourism industry, with some of the country’s most high-profile drug crimes occurring there, including the arrests of the Bali Nine smugglers and Australian national Schapelle Corby.