Cui Yadong: “Sunshine Project” is A Permanent Cure for Drug Rehabilitation (2)

Difficulties in rehabilitation are rooted in social inclusion

Journalist (“J”): Would you please tell us the current situations of Guizhou’s narcotics control and drug rehabilitation?

Cui Yadong (“Cui”): Geographically, Guizhou is a province of transit of drugs transaction. Some of Guizhou's counties were listed as key counties for narcotics control because there were lots of external drug dealers flowing into Guizhou and bringing drugs to local places where many people were tainted with drug abuse habits. Currently, Guizhou faces a variety of drug-related problems like multipoint drugs penetration, drugs transit, frequent relevant cases, huge number of drug users and difficulties in prevention and rehabilitation. The hazard to the society arising from drugs goes increasingly severe.

J: What's the major difficulty in drug rehabilitation?

Cui: there is a saying goes like that “once taking, lifelong suffering”. We can sense the hardship in drug abstention from it. The relapse rate is reported to be above 80 percent. The first difficulty is in consolidating drug withdrawal. Many drug users may relapse in case of insufficient management and supervision after their returning to society after successful mandatory detoxification at drug rehabilitation center, and then be sent to the center again and the circle returns. So you may notice that there are quite many patients in the center have returned to the center for several times due to relapse. I once read an American report which also showed a high relapse rate, i.e. relapsed group accounted for 35 percent of the total while the group relapsed for the second time accounted for 53 percent among the total relapsed. Therefore, addressing complete withdrawal issues and relapse problems is the primary difficulty, a worldwide trouble. The second difficulty is in management and control. Whatever the channels, mandatory detoxification or labor drug treatment, the rehabilitated, after their return upon completion of treatment, couldn’t get employed, have no work to do, no house to live in, no home to return to or dare not to return to home. Many of them flow everywhere making it hard for supervision and control. The third difficulty lies in social inclusion. We’ve made “physiological detoxification, psychosomatic recovery and social inclusion” our work objectives. However, in practice, this special group may subject to social discrimination after their return to society and are regarded as “evils”. Even though they are recruited, other employees in the same entity will show their unwillingness to work together with them. Public prejudice and family alienation cause them to suffer from strong sense of inferiority, lack of confidence, no job opportunity nor home open to them. Yes, they have physically returned to society, but they remain outsiders there, practically. So, difficulty in social inclusion is the harshest one among the above three.