Pubdate: Mon, 12 Jan 2015
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2015 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Author: Michael Bachelard, Indonesia correspondent Banda Aceh

CAFFEINE HIGH TAKES ON NEW DIMENSION IN ACEH

Aceh might be famous for its brutal application of Islamic sharia 
law, but it's also where a certain intoxicating weed has been getting 
people high for generations.

Marijuana sales once helped fund the 30- year war waged by separatist 
rebels and when they descended from their mountain strongholds after 
the 2005 peace deal, the plantations remained.

To this day, two lucrative cash crops - coffee and " ganja" - provide 
a healthy income in Aceh's rural hinterland.

In a pungent smoke haze at a secret location in the capital, Banda 
Aceh, an enterprising group of young stoners is combining the two 
into what could perhaps be viewed as the essence of Aceh.

Syahrul* and his two buddies take 250 grams of rich, dark Arabica 
beans grown in Gayo and mix in 10 grams of the finest, fieldgrown 
organic mull, then, squatting on the floor of their tiny room, they 
grind it all together.

The end product is packaged like normal coffee and named with a wink 
after the infamous civet catexcreted Coffee Luwak: they call it " 
Coffee Lawak", which literally means, " Coffee Buffoonery".

" Coffee normally makes you feel alert and wakes you up," Syahrul 
says. " This coffee doesn't do that."

They sell their special mix to cafes in Banda Aceh where you can buy 
a cup for 70 cents  compared with 30 cents for a normal espresso - if 
you know what to ask for. And it's delicious. The three boys - all 
Muslims - insist their brew is guilt free, because it's permitted 
under Islamic law. Their home-made religious ruling is based on the 
fact that nowhere in the Koran is ganja mentioned. It's the same grey 
area that allows millions of Muslims to smoke cigarettes.

Wrong, Banda Aceh's sharia police enforcement chief Evendi Latif 
says: " Any substance with an intoxicating effect is haram [ illicit]" .

But it's not mentioned in the Koran? " That's just an excuse they use 
to smoke ganja," he says.

The Acehnese have a long tradition of cooking with weed. It made the 
best goat curry in the land, so they say, and, if you know where to 
go, you can still sample it. That too, sadly, is haram, Latif says.

Despite these fatwas, Aceh's drug addiction is profound. Acehnese are 
often caught shipping ganja by the tonne to the rest of the country 
and recently police destroyed 800,000 plants on a property four hours 
walk from the nearest road. Some suggest that these raids are merely 
to protect a much bigger and more lucrative business run by the 
police themselves.

Aceh is also the link between Malaysia's huge ice manufacturing 
factories and the growing market for the drug ice in Indonesia, where 
it is called sabu sabu. A police officer was arrested in October 
trying to smuggle a kilogram of it into the country.

The sabu sabu trade distresses Syahrul and his buddies. They say 
pushers are targeting high school students with cheap product to get 
them hooked. " We don't like that. It's synthetic and no good," Syahrul says.

" We like this," says his friend, indicating the joint smouldering 
between his fingers. " We're just nature lovers at heart."

* Not his real name
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom