Guessing The Reason Why Many People Die For The Sake Of Drinking Oplosan Liquor

Miras illustrations (yarmoluk / pixabay)

JAKARTA - News about people who died because they drank illegal alcoholic drinks or oplosan was widely heard. The number of victims falling due to this tends to increase from 2017. Strangely enough, there are still people who are still determined to consume it. The question is why? what makes them desperate?

The news of death due to mixed alcohol recently happened yesterday (11/2). As reported by era.id, two young people from Ciracas, East Jakarta died after drinking mixed ginseng. Previously, the victim was treated at the Ciracas District Hospital. Damn, his life can't be helped.

Reportedly they got the drink from a trader who disguised himself as an herbalist. The police are still investigating the mixed alcohol case.

Two years ago, in April 2018, a similar incident, which was even more exciting, occurred. At that time, 44 people were reportedly killed because they had drunk too much mixed liquor in Cicalengka, Bandung Regency.

I can't stop thinking when I see many victims so desperate to drink adulterated alcohol. Even when there are some people who can survive adulterated alcohol, they just don't deter and repeat their actions.

"He said he drank again. Even though he was safe. I didn't expect to die, right in the morning I talked, talked to his friend who died first," said Dafa (18) in an interview with detikcom.

As explained by Hizkia Respatiadi and Sugianto Tandra in "Combating Illegal Alcohol: A Policy Priority in Bandung, West Java" in 2018. When compared to legal alcoholic drinks on the market, illegal liquor or adulterated is much more dangerous.

The alcohol and methanol content in it can have bad effects when consumed by humans. Methanol has the same aroma as ethanol or ethyl alcohol that is produced for human consumption. The difference is methanol is very toxic and can cause seizures, organ damage, and death.

"Methanol is used in adulterated because it is cheaper than ethanol and is considered to be more effective and fast to intoxicating its users, so that only a small amount is enough to get drunk," Respatiadi and Tandra wrote.

Death rate due to mixed alcohol increased

According to research data from the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies or CIPS (2018), the total number of people who died from mixed alcohol from 2008 to 2018 reached 840 people. Meanwhile, from year to year, the data on people who died from adulterated alcohol tended to increase.

In 2015 alone, 131 people were recorded as dead, then in 2016 it increased to 160 people. In 2017 the figure had indeed decreased to 48 people. However, the following year the death toll increased to 97 people.

Still according to CIPS research data, the reason that drives them to do this is the majority because of economic considerations. As many as 49 percent said they were motivated to consume illegal alcoholic drinks or oplosan because the price was cheaper. Meanwhile, 21 percent admitted that the drink is also easy to find at the nearest stalls.

Why are they desperate?

There is a more fundamental reason why people love alcohol. According to UIN Sociologist Syarif Hidayatullah Tantan Hermansyah, this is due to the environment, invitations, and habits.

For many people, consuming alcoholic drinks has become a habit and even a lifestyle. According to Tantan, those who like to consume alcohol can be classified based on many things, one of which is economic ability.

"Those who have enough money, place and type of alcohol are different from normal economies," Tantan told VOI via WhatsApp.

Therefore, it is those who are in this ordinary economic classification who are at great risk. The reason is that the majority of them who consume oplosan alcohol are youth from the lower middle class. They dare to bet their lives to get their version of pleasure by consuming oplosan alcohol.

Tantan explains why this happened. According to him there are people who seek identity and existence through ways of showing things that some people would not dare to do.

"According to them, by showing the courage to make adulterated liquor, courage will emerge," added Tantan.

Therefore, according to Tantan, to make people aware of the bad effects of that behavior, social and religious values have an important role. "Social and religious values make it clear that there are bad impacts on such behavior," he concluded.