Just one fix: The highs and lows of drug abuse

Since 1987, June 26 is observed as the international day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking.

KARACHI: Abdullah* is now in his 40s but remembers the day he smoked his first joint like it was yesterday. He was in class nine and his friends thought it was cool.

But that was way back in 1986. Since then Abdullah claims he has tried everything including crystal meth and heroin. These days, he keeps himself busy working at the AAS Trust, a rehabilitation centre for drug users. He completed a rehab course in 2012 and now helps out at the Trust's centre for children. "There was no treatment available anywhere till I came here and then, I felt obligated to give back," he said. "After all, they saved my life."

The AAS Trust - Alleviate, Addiction, Suffering, was set up by Abdul Rehman Allana, an industrialist, in 2000. According to his employees, someone close to Allana got into trouble with drugs and when he saw how that destroyed the person, he felt like he had to do something. So he set up the Trust to help people who with a drug or drinking problem. The rehab offers a three-month Narcotics Anonymous programme, has an adult unit, an adult half-way house and a primary unit for children.

For Akram, there was a time drugs meant more to him than his family. It was all about the next hit. He went for treatment to many centres but nothing seemed to work for him. Things, he said, had gotten so bad that he wanted to kill himself. "I became extremely insensitive," said the young man in his 20s. "I had no idea who I was talking to or dealing with when I was high but then things got better. I'm here for the fourth time and think it will work now."

On his last day at the Trust's centre in Malir, Abid, a heroin user, said he had relapsed after four drug-free years. "This is not just an addiction, it's like an illness," he said. "It's great that they teach us how to stop using, but we can relapse. We just have to be strong enough not to do it again."

Lighting up

Asif hasn't seen his father since he started using and slapped his father. "I lost everything to drugs," said teenager. "I became a thief and my mother had to face my uncle's wrath because of my drug problem." His mother, he added, comes to meet him once a week but all he really wants is for his father to forgive him.

Another teenager at the rehab centre claimed that he liked getting the treatment as he felt loved at the centre. "My family does not love me the way I am loved here," he said. "I don't want let my counselors down."

Tender, loving, care

At AAS, we don't just treat clients, said Akhtar Mirza, we care for them. Mirza is the man who coordinates between the board of trustees and four centres. He said that they worked in a very homely environment where everyone was a brother. "It's just something we do," he said. "The 30 people we have enrolled in the programme live like family. They do their daily household chores and follow a schedule."

According to the manager of the adult centre, Imran, there is a penalty - a week's worth of chores or no contact with families for a week, if someone messes up. "At other centres, the clients are tied up or hit, we try to teach with love," he said.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Mirza said that they also work on changing behaviour patterns and avoid medication as it was impossible to fight substance abuse with more substances.

Discussing the three-month programme, Mirza said that the adult clients move into the Trust's halfway house where they are kept under supervision and try to start over. 

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2014.