Trends in Rehabilitation-Based Narcotics Law Reform and Role-Based Evidence: The Integrated Rehabilitation–Role Evidence (IRRE) Model for Justice for Drug Users and Disrupting Trafficking Networks in North Sumatra

Drug abuse is not merely a criminal problem but also a matter of health and recovery. Law No. 35 of 2009 requires addicts and victims of drug abuse to undergo medical and social rehabilitation, yet in practice a person found carrying narcotics may hold very different roles, from user and addict to courier, recipient, or part of a larger trafficking network. This article examines whether law enforcement can adequately distinguish people who need treatment from those who control illicit circulation, in the context of North Sumatra, where the provincial police reported 6,078 cases and 7,634 suspects in 2025. Using a normative juridical and conceptual method, the article develops the Integrated Rehabilitation–Role Evidence Model (IRRE), which integrates rehabilitation assessment of drug users with role-based evidence mapping across the narcotics network and a digital dashboard linking arrest data to final and binding judgments. IRRE has five components: a Rehabilitation Gate, a 0.1 Gram Research Threshold, a Role Evidence Matrix, an Arrest-to-Final-Judgment Dashboard, and an Online Rehabilitation Legal Gateway. The 0.1 gram figure is proposed only as a hypothesis to be tested legally, medically, and empirically, not as a legal limit. The article is conceptual and reports no empirical findings; testing the model is framed as a further research agenda in light of the new Criminal Procedure Code (Law No. 20 of 2025).