Punjab: No rules, de-addiction centres a lucrative business

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No rules, de-addiction centres on a high

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking As govt fails to

frame regulatory norms, ill-equipped facilities mushroom; torture of inmates a

routine

Vishal Rambani, Amritsa, June 25, 2009

DRUG ADDICTION being the cause of many a family in Punjab being wrecked, people

offering de-addiction services — even if the most unscientific — are finding it

a lucrative business

Making it convenient for the private deaddiction centres is the lack of any

government norms to regulate the facilities, which are mushrooming all across

the state but are known more for the humiliation they subject their patients to

Vernacular dailies regularly carry classified advertisements offering

de-addiction services, including a " laser technique or just one injection to get

over the addiction " , which doctors say have no medical basis

Over the past five years, hundreds of deaddiction centres have come up in

Punjab, many of them without any legal recognition. Most do not have a permanent

psychiatrist or warden, a must for any such facility. The government, however,

has no record of the centres.

Addicts admitted to these centres allege they are routinely tortured, abused and

humiliated.Several cases of inmates being chained or handcuffed have also been

reported in the media.

As almost anyone can open such a centre, most are being run by people who are

just " registered medical practitioners " , often a euphemism for lack of medical

qualification. What's worse, there are even some ex-addicts who have got into

the business

Dr Gurpreet Inder Singh,a professor of psychiatry at Guru Ram Das Medical

College, Amritsar, says some of the socalled de-addiction centres are actually

proving to be " addiction centres " . " Many are supplying drugs or steroids to

inmates, " he says,adding most private deaddiction centres exist only for the

money

As parents are ready to pay any cost to save their child from drugs, these

centres charge steep fees for the services. A 10-day rehabilitation course could

cost anything from Rs 6,000 to 15,000, Dr Singh says

Very often, the methods applied to con- trol the urge for drugs in inmates are

crude, to say the least, beating being one of the most common, says Dr Singh,

who has come across many such patients

Dr P.D. Gargi, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Government Medical College,

Amritsar, says the laser therapy or one-injection treatment being propagated by

many centres is nothing but fraud

There is no such treatment possible, he says, adding the government must stop

this illegal practice The state government, meanwhile, has failed to come up

with a comprehensive policy to check the spreading drug addiction as well as

bring the de-addiction centres under any control

A State Coordinating Committee head- ed by the Chief Secretary was set up in

2005 regarding the matter, but it has met only twice ever since. No policy or

regulations have been finalised regarding drug abuse, rehabilitation or

de-addiction centres

There was another committee constituted under the Secretary, Social Security,

but that has only been sending the ball back and forth between the Social

Security Department,Education,Youth Affairs and the Health Department for the

past four years

Principal Secretary, Social Security, Harjeet Singh says it is taking long as

there are many departments involved. But now the rules should be framed within

the next three months, he says. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has also

passed directions in this regard.

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