Hooked on drugs: Using love to rehabilitate addicts

Welfare centre set up by local police officers in Swat to help addicts

SWAT: For university student Fazal Mabood, there was a time when life revolved around a syringe, small piece of metal, a lighter and a choice of either a small, white crystal or some powder.

Mabood, who now studies bachelors of sciences at the Swat University, spent seven years addicted to heroin and crystal methamphetamine (ice).

His life, by all modern standards, had gone off the rails and he had joined the hundreds of people in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa who had given into drugs.

He, however, found himself admitted to the Naway Jond (New Life) welfare centre in Swat. At first, it appeared to be another rehabilitation centre to Mabood who sought to address his cravings.

As the hold of drugs was loosened over him, he started paying attention at what was going on at the centre. He realised that things were different at this rehabilitation centre. Instead of being chained, starved or being beaten as is the won’t at some rehabilitation centres, Mabood found himself listening to lectures on how drugs work, what they do to the human body and motivational talks to kick the habit.

Mabood, who graduated from the centre, is now its brightest light by working there as the in-charge and helping others like him to kick the habit.

Set up in Swat district’s largest city of Mingora around 10 months ago, the welfare and ‘rejuvenation’ centre aims to treat drug addicts and underage criminals in a more reformative and rehabilitative manner rather than opting for the regular punitive way of sending such people to prison.

The centre believes that an addict craves love more than the addiction and provides its inmates with care, food, shelter and even sporting facilities. Thus far, 193 people have been released after a successful stint at the facility while 21 — including a number of juveniles— are still undergoing a mental restoration process at the facility.

Naway Jond also employs a number of unique methods to reach its charges, enlisting help from clerics and police officers to deliver a series of lectures to reform addicts and criminals as efficient citizens.

Riaz Ahmed, the centre’s director, told The Express Tribune that there are more than 4,000 drug addicts in Swat as per estimates of non-governmental organisations with this number rising.

Ahmed added that the need for setting up a rehabilitation centre for addicts, where they could be treated on a permanent basis, was first felt by a former police officer of the district Aijaz Khan.

The police then dedicated its check-post building to form the centre, providing security, power and medical facilities there while they themselves moved into a rented building. Moreover, to pay for its day-to-day operation, the centre collects donations.

Mabood said that their experiment has thus far proved to be successful, helping dozens of people kick the habit. Such was the impact of the centre on the addicts that no one tried to escape.

Mingora Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Habibullah said that they were seeing more youngsters getting addicted to drugs.

Habibullah noted that it was important to get drug-addicted youngsters into rehabilitation in a timely manner. However, he lamented that whenever they asked, the government always told them that they do not have sufficient funds for a rehabilitation centre. Hence, he said that they have turned to donors to keep the rehabilitation centre functioning and afford instructors to teach inmates different skills.

He added that he and a few other police officers lecture inmates at the centre. Rasheed Ali, a resident of Mingora, said that after the centre was created, they had seen a decline in petty robbery — committed by drug addicts to buy more drugs.

“The locals are thankful to the police for this initiative,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2018.