Jakarta Shao Lin Society: Jakarta, West Java

By Barrie | August 14th, 2007 | No Comments

Treatment for drug addiction is usually a lengthy and arduous process, and often times those undergoing rehabilitation end up relapsing at some point, nullifying all the hard work; not forgetting the money expended for that long sought journey to recovery.

Like in many traditional societies, alternative healing often goes hand-in-hand with conventional Western medicine. This also holds true in Jakarta, where alternative medicine is considered able to treat anything from a broken limb, to sexual impotency to drug abuse as the article in the Jakarta Post explains.

As far as treatments for drug addiction are concerned, the city’s community of holistic healers are now offering a new service.

Key members of the Jakarta Shao Lin Society, and the owner of the Pensaolin Rapid Medication Foundation for Drug Addiction in West Jakarta, recently set up a drug rehabilitation forum that seeks to publicize and expand on the use of traditional Chinese herbal medicine in treating substance abuse.

The “Save-Our-Nation-From-Narcotics Forum“, or Fornegeri, a forum set up on July 7 by Shao Lin members Chen Chun and Wikui Sahabu, is currently offering the Pensaolin herbal detoxifying drink at a discounted price.

The tonic, which is claimed to be able to cure just about any type of substance abuse after a five-day course, normally costs Rp 20 million (about US$ 2,218) for a single treatment. But when sold through Fornegeri, patients will end up paying Rp 6 million a course.

No matter how promising Chen and Wikui’s concoction may sound to drug users and their families, conventional health practitioners say public discretion is still very much called for.

“Doctors welcome all contributions aimed at curing addiction, especially those aimed at developing local Indonesian medicine” internist and AIDS activist Samsuridjal Djauzi said.

“However, any medicine, whether conventional or herbal, still needs to undergo proper clinical trials prior to being marketed to the public in order to know exactly how the medicine works and whether there are side effects.

“We need to protect the public from any possible harm since traditional medicine; despite being herbal, isn’t faulty-proof.”

According to a 2005 study conducted by the University of
Indonesia, 1.5 percent (8,200,000) of Indonesia’s total population are drug users and 60 percent of them are HIV positive.

Jakarta is currently the nation’s capital of drug abuse and trade, with users and traffickers scattered evenly in the city’s five municipalities.

Chen Chun, who is also known as Graha Tejasukmana, said he hit on the herbal concoction after studying Chinese medicine in his birth place of China. He relocated to Indonesia in the 1950s, becoming a citizen just last year.

Chen and Wikui have been in the field of drug addiction treatment since they founded the Pensaolin Rapid Medication Foundation for Drug Addiction located in Gadjah Mada, West Jakarta, in 1978.
Most of their clientele are the sons and daughters of the city’s wealthy and powerful elite. They claim to have cured more than 1,000 drug abusers since then.

When asked about the reason for establishing Fornegeri, Chen, a former glassware entrepreneur, and his friend Wikui, a cosmetics businessman, said they felt it was high time to give back to society.

Fornegeri was thought to be a timely venture, they said, considering the significant rise in drug abuse in the city.

Former heroin addict Budi Rissetyabudi has had his share of both conventional and alternative medicine.

“I have tried numerous traditional medicines from acupuncture to cupping to reflexology, and also conventional withdrawal treatments like methadone” the coordinator of Stigma, a support group for addicts, said.

“What got me through my addiction in the end was pure peer support — therapeutic community counseling; no medications whatsoever,” said Budi who claims to have lots of friends who were patients of Chen’s and Wikui’s.

According to Budi, conventional and traditional medications are only effective in treating the first phase of addiction rehabilitation, namely substance withdrawal.

“Many of my friends have tried Chinese medicine and it worked out well for them, but once they got over the pangs of withdrawal and relapse overtakes them, it’s all down hill for them from then on.

“People need to realize there is also a psychological and social dimension to drug addiction, it’s not just a physical matter where medication can intervene” Budi added.