An Adelaide man accused of drug possession in Indonesia is facing 20 years in jail, police say.

Former schoolteacher Graham Clifford Payne, 20, was arrested in the north Sumatra city of Medan in August.

Police allegedly found a pouch full of methamphetamines, known locally as shabu shabu, in his pocket.

A subsequent search of his home allegedly uncovered a heroin-filled syringe and more than 2,000 tablets containing 11 different kinds of prescription drugs.

Detectives had originally planned to recommend only a 10-year jail term.

But the head of the drug squad in Medan, Captain Irwan Anwar, said evidence files to be handed to prosecutors on Wednesday recommended joint psychotropic and narcotics charges carrying a total of 20 years in prison.

"It will be accumulated," he told AAP. "It's a maximum penalty of 20 years."

Payne has so far refused to tell police who allegedly supplied him with heroin and crystal meth.

He said at the time of his arrest that he had been "kind of happy" because he had run out of money for cigarettes and his guards have been giving him plenty.

Payne praised the professionalism of Indonesian police and said his jail food for "excellent".

"To all my friends and family I will see you in a year or two," Payne said.

Anwar said Payne's urine tests had proven positive for drug use, although blood tests had been negative.

Indonesian police have appointed a lawyer to represent a Queensland mine worker arrested for allegedly using methamphetamine.

East Kalimantan police on the island of Borneo made the appointment after a counsel recommended by the Australian embassy in Jakarta failed to turn up.

John Michael Kelly, 45, from Warwick on the Darling Downs, was arrested earlier this month in the town of Sangatta.

Police claim they acted on tip off from hotel staff and caught him smoking shabu shabu in his hotel room with a local woman.

The chief detective of local police, Captain Anjas Gautama Putra, said he was still waiting for blood test results from Surabaya, although local tests had been positive for drugs.

"The embassy didn't send a lawyer as we expected, so we took the initiative to provide one from here," he said.

He said Kelly, who worked for the local unit of Thiess mining, was still being investigated, and faced up to five years in jail under article 62 of psychotropic drug laws.