The police must arrest the perpetrators and impose maximum penalties."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Schools must ensure the safety of food items being sold to children, Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) stated following the National Narcotics Agencys (BNNs) statement hinting at their food being laced with drugs.
"Schools must follow a standard to ensure the quality of food sold in and around the complex. We have to prevent drugs from being mixed in with food items," Deputy Chief of KPAI Susanto stated here, Friday.
Susanto has called on the management of schools to work in cooperation with snack traders to maintain the quality of food products being sold in their stalls.
"As long as consumers at food stalls are school children, every school has the obligation to monitor (the stalls)," he added.
Susanto expressed concern over the practice of drug dealers mixing drugs into the food of kids in order to target the youth as their future market.
"The police must arrest the perpetrators and impose maximum penalties. This is a serious crime, for it has threatened the young generation in Indonesia," he affirmed.
Earlier, on Thursday, BNN Chief Budi Waseso revealed that the police had uncovered five cases of food products being spiked with drugs and consumed by kindergarten children.
"Based on our preliminary investigation and public reports, the kindergarteners had consumed drugs mixed in their food and beverage items. Moreover, they did not have to pay (for the drugs)," Waseso stated in Denpasar.
According to BNN, drug dealers paid the food traders to conceal their narcotics into the food and beverages sold at stalls around the schools.
The objective was to target the children as their future market. Drug syndicates called the move as "market regeneration," Waseso added.
(Reported by Dewanto Samodro/Uu.S022/INE/KR-BSR/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
