Punishment or Rehabilitation? Policy on Narcotics Addicts and Abusers in Medan: A Restorative Justice Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56107/penalaw.v4i2.331Keywords:
restorative justice in drug offenses; drug addiction rehabilitation policy; criminalization vs. rehabilitation; narcotics offenders; Medan legal policyAbstract
Indonesia's Narcotics Law simultaneously criminalises drug use and obliges the state to rehabilitate dependent users, leaving officials with a persistent choice between punishment and treatment. This article examines how that choice is made in Medan, North Sumatra, and whether the policy practised there can be defended from a restorative justice perspective. Using a socio-legal (normative-empirical) method, it analyses Law No. 35 of 2009, Supreme Court Circular No. 4 of 2010, the 2014 Joint Regulation of seven institutions, Police Regulation No. 8 of 2021 and Attorney General Guideline No. 18 of 2021, and combines this with institutional data for 2021–2025 on Polrestabes Medan, the provincial National Narcotics Agency, the LRPPN BI Medan clinic and Class I Prison Medan, interpreted through the components of a legal system. The share of user cases resolved through rehabilitation at Polrestabes Medan rose from 8.0% to 14.6%, and 46.3% of the additional caseload was diverted to treatment, yet 88.9% of cumulative cases were still processed through the criminal track, and 2,850 of 3,100 narcotics residents of the prison in 2025 were serving sentences. The main barriers are overlapping possession and abuse provisions, costly assessment and scarce rehabilitation capacity, a retributive culture and stigma, and unchecked discretion. The article argues that Medan's policy is better understood as rehabilitation with restorative elements than as restorative justice proper, and proposes a graduated double-track model that combines mandatory thresholds, funded assessment, community-based capacity and reintegration support.
Keywords: restorative justice in drug offenses; drug addiction rehabilitation policy; criminalization vs. rehabilitation; narcotics offenders; Medan legal policy
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