<![CDATA[The narcotics problem in Indonesia remains a serious issue that impacts not only legal aspects, but also health, social, and national security. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of rehabilitation as an alternative to criminal punishment for drug abusers, specifically in terms of compliance with the implementation of Article 103 and Article 127 of Law Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics, the success rate of rehabilitation in reducing recidivism, and various obstacles that hinder its implementation. This study uses a normative-empirical legal method with a legislative, conceptual, case, and criminological approach. The results show that rehabilitation is basically more effective than imprisonment because it is oriented towards restoring the biological, psychological, and social conditions of drug abusers. However, its implementation is still not optimal due to inconsistent application by judges and the Integrated Assessment Team (TAT), limited rehabilitation facilities, and the strong social stigma against drug addicts. From a criminological perspective, the rehabilitative approach is considered more capable of reducing the risk of recidivism than conventional punishment. Thus, rehabilitation needs to be strengthened as the mainstay of handling drug abusers by increasing compliance of law enforcement officers, strengthening rehabilitation institutions, and changing the societal paradigm to be more oriented towards recovery rather than punishment]]>
