Noman Mosharef :
The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) has started special drive against illegal drug treatment and rehabilitation centers across the country.
It became necessary after Barisal Metropolitan Police’s Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anisul Karim was beaten to death in a illegal city hospital.
In last three days, the DNC has sealed off three unauthorized drug treatment and rehabilitation centers in the capital. These are Holy Life in Mirpur, Lubna in Uttara and Badda’s Shanti Nibas.
On the other hand, DNC Chattogram office has sealed off an illegally run drug addiction treatment centre on Tuesday.
DNC officials said, the drive will be extended subsequently against illegally run rehab centres around the country. At the same time DNC will continue their thrust against the authorized drug treatment and rehabilitation centers to know whether they follow the proper treatment guidelines or not.
The journey of the drug addiction treatment center under the Director General of Health Service started in 1988 at the Tejgaon Thana Health Complex building. The Central Drug Addiction Treatment Center currently has 100 beds. There are 10 beds for children. The free treatment is provided in 65 beds.
Although the beds were doubled, the manpower remained static. Currently there are only eight nurses.
Drug addicts are completely different from other patients. So, patients lose their mental balance during treatment. These patients are kept in observation for 24 hours. Adequate manpower is required for their treatment, an on duty nurse told the New Nation, asking not to be named.
She further said that according to the symptoms, patients are treated through various methods including counseling, therapy in psychosocial and psychoreligious methods in addition to medicines. In addition to treatment, patients also have sports and recreational activities. In addition to healing patients, various types of handicraft training are also given. But the manpower here is very low.
Due to the scarcity in drug treatment and rehabilitation centers, so-called drug rehabilitation centers are surfacing over the country, including the capital Dhaka. And the people of the concerned department of the government are pretending not to see it. At present, there are at least 1,200 such illegal drug rehabilitation centers across the country, including Dhaka. And there are only 312 approved drug treatment centers. Of them there are 105 are in Dhaka.
Unlicensed drug treatment centers are allegedly robbing the pockets of patients’ families in the name of treatment. And not only that, the patients are being tortured in different ways. Besides, these institutions do not have the necessary and qualified doctors and required equipment.
Many are using political influence to carry out various criminal activities in drug rehabilitation centers. No one dares protest against them because of their political influence. There are also allegations that law enforcement agencies are reluctant to carry out raids there for the same reason, sources said.
When asked, Director General of the Department of Narcotics Control Mohammad Ahsan Jaber said, “We have already revoked the license of Mind Aid Mental and Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital. The rest of such illegal institutions will also be shut down.
