Death penalty stands but Aceh wants in on medical marijuana

Indonesia’s sharia province of Aceh is pushing to legalise medical marijuana as the national parliament discusses amendments to the Narcotics Act.

An employee harvests cannabis at the production site of German pharmaceutical company Demecan – a scene that could soon be repeated in Aceh. Picture: Getty Images.

Indonesia’s most conservative province, Aceh, is pushing to legalise medical marijuana and to become the centre of cannabis ­research in a country that continues to enforce some of the world’s harshest drug laws.

Similar proposals have been floated for years in Aceh, where cannabis is traditionally used as a cooking spice, in herbal medicines and as a natural pesticide, but the issue was officially listed this month for debate in Aceh’s Representative Council.

The move comes as Indonesia’s parliament also considers ­revising national drug laws to downgrade marijuana from its current classification as a Class 1 narcotic alongside heroin, ­cocaine, opium and methamphetamines. Drug trafficking in Indonesia remains a crime punishable by death, as it is in neighbouring Singapore where last month a 46-year-old man was executed for conspiring to traffic 1kg of ­marijuana.

But debate over whether to permit therapeutic use of marijuana has grown following Thailand’s decriminalisation of cannabis, and discussion within Malaysia over similar law reform.

Aceh MP M Rizal Falevi Kirani said the provincial parliament was now drafting a bill to legalise medical marijuana, and pushing for more research into the benefits of Acehnese cannabis plants.

“We all know that marijuana is not taboo in Aceh. So, why don’t we discuss medical cannabis within the context of Aceh’s specificity and uniqueness?” Mr Kirani told The Australian.

Aceh was granted special autonomy status in 2006, allowing it to enact its own laws and ­enforce Islamic jurisprudence known as sharia, as part of a peace deal to end a long-running ­separatist insurgency in Indonesia’s westernmost province.

Acehnese men and women enter the main mosque in Banda Aceh. The conservative Islamic province is the only one in Indonesia that enforces Sharia law.

“There’s nothing wrong with Aceh trying to be at the forefront in terms of accepting medical marijuana, considering its numerous medical benefits,” he said.

Last year, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court rejected a legal ­appeal from parents of seriously ill children seeking permission for them to use medical marijuana on the grounds that the current laws prohibiting therapeutic use of the drug were constitutional.

But the court advised the government to urgently conduct further research into medical marijuana with a view to amending the law, prompting parliament to seek advice from pro-legalisation groups, the Sativa Nusantara Foundation and Nusantara Marijuana Network.

Last week, MPs from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle met separately with ­Sativa Nusantara Foundation Secretary Singgih Tomi Gumilang who told The Australian there was growing support for a medical marijuana industry within the parliamentary commission now looking into revising the law.

“We have been asked to provide input regarding the regulation of production, cultivation, harvesting and distribution of medical marijuana,” Mr Singgih said. “We have also been asked to help formulate effective supervision by the BNN (National Narcotics Agency) or the Indonesian National Police, advise on allowable limits of marijuana possession under a decriminalisation model, and on methods to prevent abuse and dependency.”

He is due to present a policy brief to the commission on June 26, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Mr Kirani said he believed there was significant momentum behind the push in Jakarta to downgrade marijuana to a Class II or Class III drug, which would allow it to be used for therapeutic purposes.

“Yes, it is currently illegal but we are talking about medicinal purposes, so that we can use the raw materials available in our ­region at an affordable price. For this, we need research. We do not want to rely on other people’s ­research; we need our own research,” he said.

Complicating that research ­effort, however, is the fact that marijuana is still illegal in Indonesia, making it difficult to secure land to grow the plant without fear of potentially serious repercussions. Aceh police continue to crack down on marijuana farming in inland forests, and only this week announced they had destroyed 450 marijuana plants in the mountains of Aceh Besar.