The rehabilitation centre is the last hope of many drug addicts and their families and has reached over 13,000 patients in the last four years. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/ EXPRESS
The elderly woman, who lives in Barra Maidan, Nazimabad, has three sons and five daughters. “Poverty is often the biggest problem but for a widow like me, having a young son who is a drug addict is a much bigger issue,” she remarks, clutching dozens of prescription slips in her hand.
Her son, Muhammad Asif, sits next to her, awaiting his turn at the Shaheed Benazir Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) Model Addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, located on Mauripur Road.
With over 1,200 people on the waiting list, says the centre’s project manager Colonel Syed Muhammad Majid Sherazi, new patients such as Asif will have to wait. The 55-bed hospital - the only public facility of its kind in Sindh - has treated over 2,600 drug addicts since its establishment in 2010. It also offers out-patients services on three days. The free-of-charge centre is, however, operating under its capacity due to financial constraints.
“This is one of the best facilities in the region, operating at international standards,” claims Sherazi, adding that the relapse rate of their patients is not more than 45 per cent. According to him, an addict admitted at the centre takes a maximum of 45 days to recover.
While around 40 per cent of their patients are young men between the ages of 20 to 30 years, they also receive patients up to the age of 60 years, he says.
Owing to the increasing number of female addicts, the management has started a one-day OPD service for women as well. “Separate facilities will be built for women and children in the premises soon,” says Dr Mansoor Hassan Shaikh, the PRO of the ANF Sindh, adding that around 40 new patients visit the centre on OPD days. “The staff posted at the centre is fully trained and knows how to deal with drug addicts.”
According to Dr Shaikh, the ANF has also organised medical camps across the province in the last four years, reaching out to around 13,000 patients.
The majority of the addicts brought to the centre come from poor backgrounds and use heroin, crystal meth and hashish, often due to reasons such as peer pressure, social and economic problems, unemployment and the easy availability of drugs.
Imtiaz, a 42-year-old rickshaw driver admitted in the detoxification ward, had been using heroin for the last five years. “It was a domestic issue that compelled me to resort to drugs,” he attempts to justify himself.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Suleman started taking heroin only a year ago. “I want to give it up now,” he says, trying to hold back his tears. “My little sister and brother need my help. Peer pressure ruined my life and I won’t take it again.”
In a recovery room, 56-year-old Jan Sher from Swat, the father of eight children, has a similar story, blaming his friend for his long addiction to hashish.
Salman, the oldest of five siblings, also says that his friends gave him heroin for the first time. “I was a helper in a private company and had been taking ‘powder’ for the last year,” reveals the man, who lives in Machhar Colony. “My mother brought me here for help because she wants me to live a normal life.”
Zahid Ahmed Baloch, 32, discloses that he had often thought of giving up drugs for the last 10 years because of his wife and four-year-old daughter. “I had a court marriage. My wife left her family for me. Can’t I give this up for her?”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2015.
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