Out of the frying-pan into the fire...

Published in The Daily Star
Section: Star City
Wed. February 02, 2005



Syed Tashfin Chowdhury

Tanvir was only a year away from his 'O' level exams. While preparing for the exams he had to attend classes at coaching centres and visit private tutors' houses along with his friends, one of whom introduced him to a new 'pleasure' called cannabis.

Soon Tanvir began to ask for a higher pocket money from his parents and when he thought it was not sufficient, he started stealing from his father's wallet and his mother's purse. Things got even worse, when he started borrowing money from his friends.

Receiving a few complaints from his friends and their parents, things were clear to Tanvir's parents who finally took him to a doctor. Later, they admitted him to a private drug addict rehabilitation centre in the city.

As Tanvir recovered in a few weeks, his parents were relieved to see that their son was no longer addicted to cannabis. But in about a month and a half, to their utter shock, they found him addicted to something else. This time it was heroin.

Parents of the drug addict youths in the city regularly face such situation. The reason behind the change in the addiction is something that is more alarming. The rehabilitation centre itself made him addicted to heroin, alleged Tanvir's family.

Sources said the drug addicts are usually kept in confinement at the rehabilitation centres where a section of staff provides them with alternative drugs. When they are released from these centres they start taking the new drugs.

Parents of the victims even believe that the authorities of most of these centres are aware of these activities.

"They want that the patients come back for a second or a third time because it would increase their income," said father of an addict, who had been admitted to four different rehabilitation centres until now.

"The parents are spending huge money to treat their drug addict sons or daughters in these private clinics but in most cases the end result is zero," said another victim.

"Except a few, most of these centres can easily be termed as detoxication centres, as they are just cleaning the addict up with various forms of opiate receptor blocker systems," said a volunteer at a rehabilitation centre.

Such centres throughout the world have different therapeutic and psychiatric programmes which develops the overall mental and physiological health of the addicts. Only a few centres in Dhaka have introduced such processes.

"These centres are being run abiding by the rules set up by the health ministry and how they deal with their patients are their own prerogative," said Dr Abdur Rahman Khan, director general of Health Services.

According to sources, some foreign doctors of these centres are even using medications, which they smuggle into the country inside their luggage from neighbouring countries. These medications have been banned in Bangladesh due to their adverse affects.

"A doctor bringing foreign medications into the country and a doctor prescribing or using banned medicines are both illegal," said Khan. "Strict measures can be taken against such doctors and we will soon investigate the matter."