JAMBI, Jambi: Drug addiction cases are increasing steadily in Jambi province, according to data at the Orang Kito Information Center (Sikok) Foundation.

The alarming rise in new cases is thought to have been caused by the ease with which certain illicit substances are procured in the area.

The foundation's data, released Monday, showed up 759 addicts were currently being treated at the drug addiction installation at the Jambi Hospital for the Mentally Ill, an increase of 30 percent on last year's figure.

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Motorists passing Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Monday were asked to switch their headlights on to say no to drugs.

The request was made by hundreds of representatives of non-governmental organization Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa, the national and Jakarta narcotics agencies, the International Labor Organization and the Nadhlatul Ulama Students Association, who had gathered at the traffic circle to commemorate International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

"We're asking the public to show their concern by turning on their lights," YCAB chairwoman Veronica Colondam said. "It symbolizes the light that guides a person's walk through the darkness."

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The Attorney General's Office says it is preparing to execute three convicted Bali bombers and 16 drug traffickers sentenced to death for their offenses.

AGO spokesman I Wayan Pasek Suarte did not reveal when the bombers -- Imam Samudra, 36, Amrozi 43, and his elder brother Ali Ghufron, 46, alias Mukhlas -- would face firing squads.

The law forbids authorities from publicly releasing dates for executions until after the events, although the convicts and their families are informed in advance.

Pasek said the AGO had received preliminary approval from Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin to carry out the executions of the bombers at Nusakambangan Island, a heavy-guarded prison in waters off Cilacap in Central Java where they are on death row.

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BOGOR: The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) tested the urine of students at the private Ibnu Khaldun University in Bogor on Wednesday, ahead of National Antinarcotics Day on June 26.

BNN official Adj. Comr. Supardi said urine tests would also be done at the University of Indonesia, Pancasila University and State High School No. 1 in Bogor.

"Our records show Bogor has the highest rate of drug-related crimes at 16,252 cases per year," he said while supervising the drug tests.

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AN Australian woman allegedly caught with a small amount of cannabis has tearfully appeared before an Indonesian court on charges that carry lengthy jail terms and even death by firing squad.

Prosecutors said Barbara Kathleen Higgs, 43, was arrested in February with 49.7g of cannabis and two small bags of seeds at Sengiggi beach on Lombok island, where she part owns a hotel named the Bulan Baru, or New Moon.

They alleged Ms Higgs, a Western Australian who had lived with her New Zealand husband in Lombok for five years, had admitted buying the drug on February 17 from a friend at the Blue Coral disco in Sengiggi for 500,000 rupiah ($A73) and that she had tried to sell some of the stash.

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Bali prosecutors have burnt all of the physical evidence used to convict Australian woman Schapelle Corby on drug trafficking charges, despite a planned appeal.

Corby is serving a 20-year sentence for importing marijuana.

The prosecutors have burnt the 4.2 kilograms of marijuana, the boogie board bag it was found in, the boogie board itself and Corby's flippers.

The prosecutors' office refused to save even a small part of the marijuana for DNA testing, should this become part of any future appeal.

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The Battle of the Banners is underway in Surabaya and many other cities. They scream "SAY NO TO DRUGS". They're part of Indonesia's war against narcotics- - a conflict doomed to fail, according to experts. The Jakarta Post contributor in Surabaya Duncan Graham reports:

Dony Agustinus is truly junkie tired, as the addicts say.

Though he's only 25, he carries his lean body like a man who's long passed 40 and seen too much, crippled with the cares of the world.

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Prosecutions for drug possession, dealing and manufacturing have increased more than 400 percent during the past five years, the National Narcotics Agency says.

Agency chief Made Mangku Pastika said Wednesday that the number of prosecutions for drug possession had quadrupled to 14,515 last year from 3,617 in 2001.

The number of recorded drug crimes -- including the dealing, trafficking and manufacturing of drugs -- also increased, from 4,924 suspects in 2001, to 20,023 in 2005, or an 101 percent average annual rise.

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SCHAPELLE Corby's flamboyant Jakarta lawyer has abandoned her case just days after Indonesia's highest court threw out her appeal against her drug-smuggling conviction.

Hotman Paris Hutapea said he had been volunteering his time to defend the 28-year-old Gold Coast woman but now wanted to devote his energy to cases that would make him money.

"I want to buy the new model Ferrari, so I have to make more money now," said the self-proclaimed playboy, renowned for his designer suits.

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Jakarta Police have revealed in their year-end report that cases of illicit drug use, production and trafficking increased by 31.88 percent in 2005.

"Police handled 5,948 drug cases in 2005, a significant increase from the 4,510 cases in the previous year," Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said at Jakarta Police Headquarters on Sunday.

Firman said that police managed to apprehend over than 7,780 suspects, of which only 473 were women.

"At least 27 of the suspects nabbed were foreigners," he said, adding that police seized 5.6 kilograms of heroin, 72.7 grams of crystal methamphetamine (known locally as shabu-shabu), 205,270 ecstasy pills and another 1,792,887 psychotropic pills from the suspects.

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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.

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Indonesian prosecutors in the drug possession case involving Australian woman Michelle Leslie say they will only ask for a three month sentence.

Twenty-four-year-old Leslie was arrested outside a dance party in Bali on August 21.

The page-and-a-half indictment read out at the start of her trial alleged she was arrested with two ecstasy tablets and detailed two charges, one carrying a maximum 15 year jail term, the other as little as three months.

Leslie, from Adelaide, has today told the court that she did not know that two pills inside her handbag were ecstasy.

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Over a long period in a hamlet in Tangerang, Banten, workers have quietly churned out illegal drugs in a factory licensed to produce cables, seemingly without disruption, until fish in a nearby stream died, from red and yellow substances dumped into the water it was surmised.

The substances were later found to be derivatives of the processing of amphetamines and other drugs, confirming the police's earlier suspicion, which led to the raid on Sunday, a raid said to be among the most important in police operations so far, given the factory's capacity to produce a million ecstasy pills a week worth Rp 100 billion (about US$10 million).

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JAKARTA: Almost half of Indonesia's prison population has been jailed for drug offences, a report quoting Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin says.

"Around 40 per cent of the inhabitants of jails are drug case prisoners," Mr Awaluddin was yesterday quoted by the Kompas newspaper as saying while in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

A jutice ministry official said last week that Indonesia hosts 100,611 convicts and detainees in jails across the country.

There are several Australian residents either in Indonesian jails for drug offences or in custody there awaiting trial.

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INDONESIAN prosecutors have given the first sure indication Australian model Michelle Leslie could be home within days, saying they accept she was not a pusher when she was arrested with two ecstasy tablets in her handbag.

State prosecutor Risman Tarihoran said he was convinced by evidence presented on Ms Leslie's behalf that she had turned to amphetamines - chiefly the anti-hyperactivity drug Ritalin, but also the party drug ecstasy - after a difficult relationship with her mother.

Mr Risman said there was now a "strong possibility" the prosecution would ask next Tuesday that a drug possession charge carrying a maximum of 15 years be reduced to one of using drugs, which carries a jail term of three months.

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Long Before The Kuta Explosions, The Island Of The Gods Was Being Torn Apart By Heroin And HIV, Writes Stephen Fitzpatrick

WITH the junkie's combination of ease and anticipation, Riky squeezes a forearm between calf and thigh as he squats in the corner of his Kuta boarding house room, waits a brief moment for the bruised vein on the back of his hand to engorge, then plunges the needle in deep.

The heroin starts working within seconds. Riky, 24, who's been shooting smack in Bali's most popular tourist district several times a day since arriving from his native Sumatra three years ago, releases the arm, leans against the tiled white wall and half closes his eyes.

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DENPASAR -- A 24-year-old model of mixed Australian-Philippine descent is accused of possessing Ecstasy pills in Indonesia's Bali resort island and faces lengthy imprisonment if convicted. Michelle Leslie had modeled lingerie and swimwear before her arrest.

The Australian citizen, appearing before the Denpasar district court wearing a Muslim veil, heard prosecutors accusing her of possessing two Ecstasy tablets during a police raid on a party in Bali's Jimbaran area last August.

Prosecutors said Leslie had "unlawfully possessed psychotropical drugs" in the form of Ecstasy pills. The trial was adjourned until next Tuesday.

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Prosecutors in Indonesia say they believe a life sentence is still appropriate for convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby.

The prosecutors could decide to appeal against a decision to reduce Corby's prison sentence from 20 years to 15 years.

The 28-year-old's lawyers say they have already begun the process of appealing against the decision.

They are still convinced the Gold Coast woman has been treated too harshly.

Irwin Sirigar confirmed the news with Corby in her jail cell this morning.

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THE trials of the Bali Nine, who face the death penalty for allegedly trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia to Australia, will start in less than a fortnight.

A series of seven separate trials is scheduled to begin from October 11 before the Denpasar District Court and could run for at least four months, defence lawyers for the accused said today.

Trial dates have been set for all except Renae Lawrence, 27, of Newcastle, the only woman facing charges.

Hearings are expected to be held once a week for each case.

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Indonesian authorities say they won't need Australian police officers to testify in court to get the Bali nine before a firing squad.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock today withdrew co-operation in the case, saying it was standing Australian policy not to assist in foreign death penalty cases.

Indonesian police arrested the nine in Bali in April after a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Bali drug squad chief Colonel Bambang Sugiarto said testimony from AFP officers would not be required in court.

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