The Handling of Narcotics Criminal Acts with the Penal Effort:

Analysis on the Implementation of Imprisonment and Fine Penalty

Sanctions

Nurmalawaty

Criminal Law Department, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Dr. Mansyur No.7, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Handling, Narcotics Criminal Acts, Penal Effort.

Abstract: The narcotics criminal act in Indonesia is still urgent and complex. From the disclosure of drug crimes cases

that increasingly diverse patterns and circulation networks, narcotics abuse also increased significantly both

from quantity and quality. Law No. 35 of 2009 on Narcotics is a criminal law policy in which regulates the

actions and penal sanctions that can be imposed for the perpetrators. The number of narcotics criminal acts

that perpetrators are punished does not significantly affects the decline in crime rates. Even, the prisoners

who are undergoing imprisonment are still able to control the circulation of narcotics from prison. This

study focuses on judicial review, to find how the implementation of judicial policy in deciding narcotics

criminal act cases in Medan District Court. The type of the research is normative legal research in the order

of judicial policy with descriptive approach. The application of criminal sanctions with imprisonment and

fine penalties for drug criminal act has not reached the goal of criminal prosecution, as evidenced by the

lightness of court decisions and the existence of criminal disparities of judicial decisions against narcotics

offenders.

1 INTRODUCTION

Drugs abuse and illegal narcotics trafficking in

Indonesia from year to year shows an increasing

development, and even reaching an alarming level.

Indonesia is not only a narcotics distribution place,

but has become a drug production site. It is said,

Indonesia is a drug market, because the existence of

supply & demand activities (Nugroho Prasetyo

Hendro, 2014). The problem of narcotics abuse is

not only a problem that needs attention for the State

of Indonesia, but also for the international

community. Entering the 20th century, International

attention to the narcotics problem is increasing, One

of them can be seen through the Single Convention

on Narcotic 1961 (Kusno Adi, 2009).

The chief of National Anti-Narcotics Agency

(BNN) of North Sumatra, Andi Loedianto, conveyed

the distribution of narcotics and illegal drugs in

North Sumatra Province has entered an alarming

stage, and is currently in the "North Sumatra

Emergency Drugs" condition. Based on data from

the National Anti-Narcotics Agency, there are

around 350 thousand people or 2.5 percent of the

total population of North Sumatra with 13,937,797

people living in 6,101 villages or 33 districts/cities.

The Chief of the National Anti-Narcotics Agency

(BNN) of North Sumatra Brigadier General Andi

Loedianto said this number can be said 10 thousand

people in every district/city who became drug user

(Republika, 2015).

From the narcotics criminal cases which are

processed in the Medan District Court, the data in

2017 has received at least 4,075 case files, all the

files included consist of 3,946 General Criminal

Cases and Special Criminal Cases including

Corruption Criminal Act as many as 129 files.

The efforts of handling crime can be achieved by

criminal law application, prevention without

punishment, influencing views of society on crime

and punishment/mass media (G. Peter Hoefnagels,

1973). The effort of handling crime by using

sanctions (criminal law is the oldest way of human

civilization itself. Until now, criminal law is still

used and relied as one of the criminal political

means (Barda Nawawi Arief, 1998).

This paper analyzed how to handle narcotics

criminal acts through the penal effort (criminal

1550

Nurmalawaty, .

The Handling of Narcotics Criminal Acts with the Penal Effort: Analysis on the Implementation of Impr isonment and Fine Penalty Sanctions.

DOI: 10.5220/0010088115501554

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1550-1554

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

justice system) and how is the implementation of the

criminal sanction that is given by the judge to the

defendant that done the narcotics criminal acts in

Indonesia.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The type of the research is normative legal research

in the judicial policy setting, namely reviewing and

analyzing the regulations which related to narcotics

crime. This research uses descriptive analytical

approach by exposing various judge decisions in

narcotic crime cases. The data sources in this

research are secondary data. The data obtained

through documentation studies from books, research

journals, magazines, and internet sites to support this

research.

The data analysis was carried out with qualitative

and descriptive normative analysis methods.

Qualitative normative method is based on the rules

in legislative policy, then descriptive will describe

the application of rules in various narcotics cases at

the Court level, which further analyzes the

implementation of the judge's decision. The

analyzed data was strengthened by library data

through the books and regulations that related to the

problems in this research.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 The Effort of Handling Narcotics

Criminal Acts in Indonesia

The effort of handling narcotics criminal acts in

Indonesia has begun since the enactment of the drug

ordinance (Verdoovend Middelen Ordonnantie, Stbl.

1927 Number 278 Jo Number 536). This ordinance

was replaced by Law No. 9 of 1976 on Narcotics

Criminal Act. In 1997, a new law was made, namely

Law No. 5 of 1997 on Psychotropic and Law No. 22

of 1997 on Narcotics replacing Law No. 9 of 1976.

The birth of the two laws was preceded by the

issuance of Law No. 8 of 1996 on the ratification of

psychotropic convention in 1971 and Law No. 7 of

1997 on the ratification of the convention to

eradicate illicit drug trafficking and psychotropic

drugs in 1988.

As the technology and information progresses,

narcotics criminal act is growing not only in local

dimension but also in international dimension that is

carried out by using sophisticated modus supported

by a wide network of organizations, and cause a lot

of victims, especially the young generation of the

nation. Narcotics circulation has penetrated national

borders in the world, entered Indonesia as a transit

country state or even as a point of market-state (Lilik

Muliadi, 2012).

In the Law Number 35 of 2009 on Narcotics,

there is a type of criminal sanction formulation

(strafsoort) and the formulation of the duration of

criminal sanction (strafmaat) which can be seen in

the table below:

Table 1: Form of Sanctions (Strafmaat) in Law No. 35 of

2009 on Narcotics.

Article Form of sanctions

Article 111,112 (1) Imprisonment minimum 4 (four)

years and maximum 12 (twelve)

years and fine minimum Rp.

800.000.000,- (eight hundred

million rupiah) and maximum

Rp. 8.000.000.000.000,- (eight

billion rupiah).

(2) Life imprisonment or

imprisonment minimum 5 (five)

years and maximum 20 (twenty)

years and fine maximum 20

(twenty) years and fine

minimum Rp. 800.000.000,-

(eight hundred million rupiah)

and fine maximum as referred to

in paragraph (1) there to plus 1/3

(one-third).

Article 113,116 (1) Imprisonment minimum 5 (five)

years and minimum 15 (fifteen)

years and fine minimum Rp.

1.000.000.000,- (one billion

rupiah) and maximum Rp.

10.000.000.000.000,- (ten billion

rupiah).

(2) Death penalty, or life

imprisonment, or imprisonment

minimum 5 (five) years and

maximum 20 (twenty) years and

fine maximum as referred to in

paragraph (1) there to plus 1/3

(one-third).

Article 128 Detention maximum 6 (six) months

and fine maximum Rp. 1.000.000,-

(one million rupiah).

Article 134 (1) Detention maximum 6 (six)

months and fine maximum Rp.

1.000.000,- (two million rupiah).

(2) Detention maximum 3 (three)

months and fine maximum Rp.

1.000.000,- (one million rupiah)

The formulation of criminal sanctions in the Act

consists of: the first is the primary punishments are

The Handling of Narcotics Criminal Acts with the Penal Effort: Analysis on the Implementation of Imprisonment and Fine Penalty

Sanctions

1551

imprisonment, death penalty, detention, fine,

additional punishment (revocation of business

licenses/revocation of certain rights and the eviction

of foreigners). The second is the duration of

imprisonment is various. Imprisonment of 1 year to

20 years and/or life imprisonment. For detention

ranged from 6 months. The third is the number of

criminal penalties ranges from 60 million rupiah to

10 billion rupiah for psychotropic crimes, and

between 1 million rupiah to 7 billion rupiah for

narcotics crime. The fourth is criminal sanctions are

generally threatened cumulatively (especially

imprisonment and fine).

The handling of criminal acts through the penal

means (criminal justice system) is used the theory of

criminal policy. According to G.P. Hoefnagels, the

efforts to handle criminal acts include: The criminal

law application which focuses on the repressive

nature (suppression of eradication, crackdown) after

the occurrence of a crime (Barda Nawawi Arief,

1996).

3.2 The implementation of Criminal

Sanction for Narcotics Criminal

Acts

In connection with the application of criminal

sanctions for narcotics criminal acts, several cases

examined and decided in the Medan District Court

can be seen in the table below:

Table 2: Case of Narcotics Sent by Medan District Court .

Number of case

Name of

defendant

Gender

Age

Occupation

The violated

article

Decision

72/Pid.Sus/2017/PN MDN,

Thursday, January 19

, 2017

ZAINI HARAINDO

Man

19 years old/ June 20

, 1997

Nothing

Subsidiary, primary Article 112

Paragraph (1) Jo. Article 132

Paragraph (1) Law No. 35 of 2009

on Narcotics, subsidiary Article 127

Paragraph (1) Jo. Article 55

Paragraph (1) of Criminal Code

1. To declare the

defendant ZAINI

HARAINDO was not proven

legally and convincingly guilty

of committing a criminal

offense charged in primary

indictment.

2. To release the defendant from

the primary indictment.

3. To declare the defendant has

been proven legally and

convincingly guilty of

committing a criminal act

“Participate in abusing the

Narcotics Group I not in form

of plant for self”.

4. To impose the criminal

sanction to the defendant by

risonment for 1

(

one

)

ear.

Number of case

Name of

defendant

Gender

Age

Occupation

The violated

article

Decision

73/Pid.Sus/2017/PN MDN,

Thursday, January 19

, 2017

M.HELVIN FLANTINO

Man

32 years old/ July 18

,1984

Employee

Subsidiary, primary Article 112

Paragraph (1) Jo. Article 132

Paragraph (1) Law No. 35 of 2009

on Narcotics, subsidiary Article 127

Paragraph (1) Jo. Article 55

Paragraph (1) of Criminal Code

1. To declare the

defendant ZAINI

HARAINDO has been proven

legally and convincingly guilty

of committing a criminal

offense charged in primary

indictment.

2. To release the defendant from

the primary indictment.

3. To declare the defendant has

been proven legally and

convincingly guilty of

committing a criminal act

“Participate in abusing the

Narcotics Group I not in form

of plant for self”.

4. To impose the criminal

sanction to the defendant by

imprisonment for 1 (one) year.

Number of case

Name of

defendant

Gender

Age

Occupation

The violated

article

292/Pid.Sus/2017/PN MDN,

Monday,February 6

, 2017

IVO ISMAWAN i.e. IVO

Man

40 years old/ March 25

, 1976

Labor

Alternative, First Article 112

Paragraph (1) of Law No.35 Year

2009 on Narcotics, Or Second,

Article 111 Paragraph (1) of Law

No.35 Year 2009 on Narcotics, and

Third Section Article 127

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

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Decision

Paragraph (1) Sub-Paragraph a Law

No .35 of 2009 on Narcotics.

1. To declare the Defendant IVO

ISMAWAN i.e. IVO has been

proven legally and

convincingly guilty of

committing a criminal offense

charged in primary

indictment.: Without the right

and illegally possessing

Narcotics Group I not in form

of plant as regulated and

threatened in Article 112

paragraph (1) of Law No.35 of

2009 on Narcotics and

subsidiary indictment: Without

the right and against the law

controlling Narcotics Group I

form of plants as regulated and

threatened in Article 111

paragraph (1) of Law No.35 of

2009 on Narcotics and the third

indictment misconduct

Narcotics Group for self "as

regulated and threatened

criminal in Article 127

Paragraph (1) Sub-Paragraph a

of Law No. 35 of 2009 on

Narcotics as regulated and

threatened in Article 127

Paragraph (1) Sub-Paragraph a

of Law No.35 Year 2009;

2. To impose criminal sanction

on Defendant IVO ISMAWAN

i.e. IVO with imprisonment for

6 (six) years and fine of

Rp.1.000.000.000 (one billion

rupiah) provided that the

unpaid fine shall be replaced

with imprisonment for 2 (two)

months.

From some cases that have explained above, it

can be said that there is a disparity of the judge's

decision in imposing criminal sanction of

imprisonment and fine for the perpetrators of

narcotics crime. The main aspect of the punishment

purpose is to emphasize the offenders, so in this

case, an imprisonment will be effective if it can

change the offender to be a better person. If it is

linked to criminal purposes in providing community

protection, imprisonment is said to be effective if the

criminal can prevent or reduce the occurrence of

crime. The criteria of effectiveness can be seen from

how far the frequency of crimes that can be

suppressed, both quantitatively and qualitatively. So,

this case generally emphasizes on prevention aspect

or in the other words, can prevent others from

committing a crime.

In Law No. 35 of 2009, there are some

fundamental changes, especially in the increasingly

high criminal penalties both imprisonment and fine.

From the several cases examined, the judge's

decision was relatively very low compared to the

criminal threat contained in the law. Moreover, the

penalty of fines imposed so much in number, but

because it is given an alternative with a very light

prison criminal substitute. Even there are judges

who do not drop their criminal penalties at all. It can

be said that the imposition of imprisonment and

fines in narcotics crime will not affect the decrease

in the number of narcotic criminal acts.

The issue of imprisonment arose criticisms

suggesting that the imprisonment is a less effective

type of crime; this is attributed to the comparative

rate of recurrence or reconviction rate for the person

who first commits a crime compared to the age of

the perpetrator. According to Jackson, reconviction

rate becomes even higher after people are sentenced

to imprisonment rather than criminal instead of

imprisonment (R.M. Jackson, 1972).

It is further said that some states have confidence

crisis in the effectiveness of imprisonment, and there

is a tendency to ignore the ability of prison

institutions to support crime control or reduction.

Seen from a criminal politics perspective that people

do not get better but even more evil after serving a

jail term, the prison is a college crime. Therefore,

criminal punishment of imprisonment (punitive

imprisonment) today is not an effective deterrent to

people who are criminals in prison.

4 CONCLUSIONS

One of the efforts to overcome the narcotics criminal

acts is through criminal law. As a legal umbrella,

Law No. 35 of 2009 on Narcotics has regulated

various prohibited actions along with its criminal

sanctions, both in the form of imprisonment and

fine. In law enforcement for the perpetrators of

narcotics crime in Medan District Court, in general,

the Judge impose sanction in the form of

imprisonment and fine is still far below the criminal

sanction as regulated in the Law. The high level of

narcotics criminal act that occurs in the community

shows that the imposition of imprisonment and fines

for the perpetrators can be said to be not effective in

preventing and overcoming narcotics criminal act.

Therefore, another study is needed with regard to

The Handling of Narcotics Criminal Acts with the Penal Effort: Analysis on the Implementation of Imprisonment and Fine Penalty

Sanctions

1553

criminal politics in relation to the prevention and

control of narcotics criminal act.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully thank University of North Sumatera

for financial support in accordance with TALENTA

University of Sumatera Utara Research Contract

Year of Fiscal 2018 No. 2590/UN5.1.R/PPM/2018.

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