Drug dependents crying out for rehab

centres and counsellors

By Nadia Fazlulhaq-Sunday, March 29, 2015

Many of the nearly 300,000 drug dependents, mostly young and male, yearn to get
their lives back, but there is a shortage of full-time counsellors and rehabilitation
centres within the community and in prisons.
The National Dangerous Drugs Control
Board, the competent authority, estimates
there
are between 45,000
and 50,000 heroin
users, and 250,000
cannabis addicts in

Inmates take great pride in the vegetables they have planted in the
garden surrounding the ward. Pix by Athula Devapriya and
Anuradha Bandara

the country. The board

Medical Officer Dr. J.K. Malwattage

acknowledges there is a shortage of counsellors.

Prisons officials also say the lack of full-time counsellors and facilities remain
constraints to rehabilitation work.
Besides, they say that repeat offenders are at risk of being exposed to hard core
criminals, although drug dependents are held apart from the main prison populations.
At Mahara Prison where drug dependents are rehabilitated, we met a few young men
eager to reclaim their lives.

One of them, Nuwan, is part of a group of 30 being rehabilitated in a three-month

programme from the end of this month. He spoke to us as his prison friend
Sandaruwan, 20, sang a song that implores Mother to forgive. A fellow inmate played
a conga and others joined in clapping along to the beat. Some were
moved to tears.
Many in the group
being rehabilitated are
in their 20s and 30s.
They are separated
from the main prison
Religious activities are part of the rehab programme

population and placed

Thusitha Uduwara, Superintendent

in a medical ward of

of the Mahara Prison

the prison hospital during rehab.

Sisira Kumara, 29, from Katunayake, is a first time offender, determined to overcome
drugs and believes counselling helps.
Nuwan from Embilipitiya, a 34year-old drug addict serving two years for possession of
narcotics, is completing his jail term this week. I will leave as a good man, he
promises. He tells us he struggled with addiction and could not even care for his
family. Now, he plans to start farming when he returns home.
Thusitha Uduwara, Superintendent of the Mahara Prison said a programme initiated in
September last year has rehabilitated 60 inmates so far and only three have reoffended. The rehab project is supported by Amadyapa Sabha (Temperance
Movement).
Mr. Uduwara said dug dependents re-offend and return to jail.
This was the reason for initiating a rehabilitation programme.
Our prison houses large scale and small scale

N.K. Gunewardena a counsellor

drug

dealers. Because

of this we found it essential to keep those being treated away from them. Addicts
should not be exposed to drug peddlers, he added.
Specialised rehab centres offering counselling and other activities are desperately
needed, he said.
Latest available data from 2013 show that prisons treated 106 drug dependents, while
1,033 were treated at state run facilities. NGOs rehabilitated 225.
At Mahara, an average of 17 persons are remanded every day and 14 of them are
related to narcotics.
Prisons have to follow court procedures, implement orders given by courts and

rehabilitation in general. Drug dependents should be kept away from other criminals
and peddlers, Mr. Uduwara said. If they are not separated, they could fall prey to
convicts who manipulate them to commit crimes ranging from drug trafficking and
burglary to murder, he said. In some cases they are handed over to agents, who use
drug addicts for construction work.
Mr. Uduwara said counselling is most needed when drug dependents show signs of
despair and frustration in the early stages. Those being treated also need to eat more
and they are served extra compared with other prisoners, he explained.In the prison
hospital medical ward, rehab includes counselling and daily workouts from 5:30 a.m.
to 8:00 p.m. There are religious activities, sports, music, peer discussions and sharing
sessions. Inmates also take great pride in the fruit trees and vegetables they have
planted in the garden surrounding the ward.
The National Dangerous Drugs Control Board supports the prison rehab programme
and the facility also pulls in counsellors from nearby police stations.
The Mahara prison has six in-house rehabilitation officers including. N.K.
Gunewardena, who counsels inmates in a classroom-like setting.
Medical Officer Dr. J.K. Malwattage said usually rehab failed because human and
physical resources are not adequate. Support and commitment from government
agencies are lacking.
Most of them have been abandoned, ignored and not wanted by their families.
Therefore, they need a lot of counselling. We also provide family counselling.
However, there is a need of more counsellors and facilities, he said.
The prevalence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis is high among drug
dependents and blood-borne diseases are common among those who inject drugs by
sharing syringes, he said.
Dr. Malwattage points out the futility of arresting drug addicts by police simply because
parents and people in the neighbourhood want them out of sight. Addicts return to the

same environments after a couple of months, he said.

National Dangerous Drugs Control Board, Chairman Dr. N. Samarasinghe says there
is a severe shortage of qualified counsellors in narcotic addiction therapy. The board
estimates that there are between 45,000 and 50,000 heroin addicts, and 250,000
cannabis addicts.
We need full time counsellors. Prisons officers are trained as part time counsellors,
but it wont be a success if they are not released to be full time officers. Prisoners are
also reluctant to have jailors or prisons officials as counsellors and request for
outsiders, he said.
Prison hospitals should always be separate from prisons. Medical officers attached to
hospitals should be able to treat their patients not taking into consideration whether
they are murderers or rapists. Similarly, rehabilitation of drug dependents should be
done in a special centre. They should be seen not as offenders but as patients, he
added.
Dr Samarasinghe underlines the need to establish more recognised rehabilitation
centres, with civil society and religious leaders playing a more active role.
There are plans to use Boossa and Kandakaduwa as drug rehabilitation centres.
He said that at Kompannaveediya in Colombo, more than 350 drug addicts were found
to be using syringes to inject heroin. When drugs are scarce, several addicts share a
small amount using syringes. We are conducting awareness among the people in the
area on HIV and Hepatitis, he said.
Those infected with Hepatitis B and C may end up with liver diseases such as cirrhosis
and liver cancer. These diseases can cause death.
Dr. Samarasinghe said law enforcement needs to change its attitude towards drug
addicts. He referred to a recent court ruling in which police were warned against
arresting drug dependents by planting small quantities of drugs on them.

In terms of prison admissions, narcotics offences top the list, followed by illegal liquor.
Out of the total prisoners 65 percent take drugs and out of that 40 percent were
arrested over direct links to narcotics, while 25 percent are other crimes triggered by
drug addiction, Dr Samarasinghe said.
Heroin accounts for 65.3 per cent of the narcotic drugs related prison admissions,
followed by cannabis, which represents 34.6 per cent.
As for arrests, latest available statistics from 2013 show that police account for 95.8
per cent, followed by the Excise Department and the Police Narcotics Bureau.
In 2013, police arrested 22,600. The Department of Excise arrested 504 and PNB
made 303 arrests.
A senior police official said that law enforcers do work with NDDCB rehabilitation
centres and assist in prison rehab programs, while bearing in mind the responsibility to
maintain law and order. Drug addicts get involved in many other crimes. Action has to
be taken against them.
The former head of Police Narcotics Bureau, Anton Jeyananthan sees the need for a
drug intelligence unit and take down drug kingpins to stem the flow of narcotics into
communities.
Local police should keep their areas clean while the PNB should strengthen their
intelligence gathering to arrest drug lords. A reward and punishment scheme should
be introduced. Police officers should not be placed in one area for more than five
years, he said.
He does not favour imprisoning first offenders and suggests post-rehab programmes
for those who have turned their lives around.
All those who spoke to us agree that drug dependents deserve more support to
become good humans again and that punitive laws are not the only answer.
Posted by Thavam