Community-based rehabilitation centres the way forward
No anti-narcotics operation will succeed unless there is a concerted effort at demand reduction, and rehabilitating drug-addicted people is a key part of the Yukthiya operation, Acting IGP Tennakoon said.
Police have been heavily criticised since the start of the Yukthiya operation for forcibly sending drug-addicted people for rehabilitation. The move to refer hundreds of such persons for mandatory rehabilitation has also resulted in overcrowding at existing centres. This has caused issues at places such as the Kandakadu Rehabilitation Centre, which has seen repeated clashes between inmates and mass breakouts in recent weeks.
Mr. Tennakoon said police believe there are more than 100,000 drugaddicted people in the country. “If they aren’t successfully rehabilitated and convinced to stay off drugs, there will continue to be an attractive market for narcotics in the country. As long as the demand is there, someone will always step in no matter who we arrest.”
Instead of sending drug-addicted persons for forcible rehabilitation, authorities are now attempting to begin a voluntary community-based rehabilitation project, set to begin next week with the assistance of the NDDCB, civil society organisations, and religious leaders. The plan is to open 250 new community-based rehabilitation centres around the country. Each centre will have room for 50 people, meaning 12,500 people can be rehabilitated at these centres at one time. This will be a marked improvement from the situation at present, where only 30 rehabilitation centres are in operation islandwide, with an annual capacity of 4700 persons. If the programme is successful, it will lead to a significant demand reduction, authorities noted.
Research has shown that results from forcible rehabilitation in an institutional setting are low, with as much as 75% of those undergoing such rehabilitation relapsing into drug use after release, said Amaranath Tenna, Programme Director at the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC). “Such persons are being forcibly rehabilitated in an artificial setting. In contrast, community-based rehabilitation in areas where drugaddicted persons reside and using such methods as peer-to-peer intervention have shown to have far better results.”
He said there were also shortcomings in aftercare for rehabilitated inmates. They can become shunned by the community, which labels them as “kudu kaarayas.” As such, they need support from the authorities on how to live their lives in such a setting, said Mr. Tenna. “It should go beyond checking whether the person has relapsed and focus on helping them to live in such an environment. Such issues will be addressed in a community-based programme,” he said, adding that the new programme, if properly implemented, is the way forward.
He said the current government-run rehabilitation centres can be improved too if significant changes are made. Firstly, the current period of one-year mandatory rehabilitation is too long and should be reduced. The centres should also be places where people would want to go voluntarily, rather than being sent against their will, he stressed.
Mr. Tenna emphasised that prevention is the most important method when tackling drugs. “Since it is youths who are most at risk of becoming addicted to drugs, more drug preventive programmes at the school level should be implemented while existing legislation should be empowered, he said. “This is like falling into a waterfall. It’s always better to prevent people from falling in rather than try to rescue them at the bottom,” he observed.