V. Treatment and Rehabilitation
To protect the physical and mental health of Chinese
citizens, maintain public order, and wipe out once and for all the scourge of drugs, the
Chinese government attaches great importance to and vigorously carries out the work of
drug prohibition and the rehabilitation of addicts. To this end, it has adopted
comprehensive measures for the rehabilitation of addicts, and their treatment and
recovery, integrated with compulsory measures and social help and education, in a
concerted effort to eradicate drug abuse and save drug addicts.
According to Chinese law, drug takers must be rehabilitated.
Therefore, an investigation and registration system and monitoring networks of drug abuse
have been established throughout the country, regularly collecting data and materials, and
promptly monitoring the conditions of addicts. The State Council has promulgated the
Procedures for Compulsory Drug Addiction Rehabilitation, and the related department has
formulated the Guiding Principles for Commonly Used Therapies Applicable to Opiates
Addicts and the Procedures for the Control of Pharmaceuticals for Drug Addiction
Treatment, to standardize the work of the rehabilitation and treatment of addicts in
China. The state has also established drug dependence research centers, drug abuse
monitoring centers, drug dependence treatment centers and narcotic drugs laboratories, and
organized scientific research institutions and experts to conduct research on scientific
methods of rehabilitation for addicts and pharmaceuticals for drug addiction treatment.
Proceeding from its concrete conditions, China has adopted various measures to
rehabilitate addicts, taking compulsory measures as the main principle. All addicts are
sent to compulsory rehabilitation centers established by governments at all levels. Those
who resume drugs after receiving compulsory treatment are sent to
reeducation-through-labor centers administered by judicial departments, where they are
forced to undergo treatment side by side with reeducation through physical labor. Addicts
who are unsuitable for receiving treatment in compulsory rehabilitation centers are
ordered to give up within a definite time period under the guardianship of their family
members and the education and administration of the local public security stations. Some
local medical institutions also offer services for the rehabilitation and treatment of
volunteer addicts.
In some areas, measures adaptable to local conditions have also been taken to supervise
and help addicts become rehabilitated through mass organizations and organizations at the
grassroots level.
In China, addicts mainly receive treatment at compulsory rehabilitation centers and
treatment and reeducation-through-labor centers -- special schools for educating and
saving addicts from ruin. Specific and concrete provisions are formulated in the
Procedures for Compulsory Drug Addiction Rehabilitation on the construction,
administration, rehabilitation measures and welfare provisions of compulsory
rehabilitation centers. Chinese public security and judicial organs have also formulated
regulations on the hierarchical and standardized administration of compulsory
rehabilitation centers and treatment and reeducation-through-labor centers. Governments at
all levels also earmark large amounts of funds for the establishment of special
rehabilitation centers each year. At present, China has a total of 746 compulsory
rehabilitation centers and 168 treatment and reeducation-through- labor centers (teams).
In 1999, over 224,000 and 120,000 addicts received treatment at compulsory rehabilitation
centers and treatment and reeducation-through-labor centers, respectively. The
rehabilitation centers carry out strict, scientific and civilized administration according
to law, adhering to the principle of saving addicts through reform education. They offer
to addicts safe and scientific treatment, legal and moral education, and strict training
to correct their behavior, and organize them to learn scientific and general knowledge,
carry out varied and stimulating recreational and sports activities, and engage in
appropriate productive labor, by which they can both improve their physical agility and
master skills to earn their livings. All the income from their work is used to improve
their living conditions.
To fully respect and guarantee the legal rights and interests of addicts, the centers
carry out an open security system and voluntarily lay their work open to the supervision
of the deputies to the NPC and the general public. State narcotics control organs and
health and anti-epidemic departments jointly carry out the work of survey, education,
prevention and cure in connection with AIDS at the centers, and conduct investigations
into HIV infection among addicts in some provinces. Endeavoring to realize standardized
administration, a number of centers in Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu and Guangdong provinces have
created the experience of "undergoing treatment along hospital lines, offering
education along school lines, managing the environment along garden lines and achieving
rehabilitation along labor lines," and have been called "places of rebirth where
I bade farewell to drugs" by many addicts.
To solve the difficult problem of the high rate of relapse, the Chinese government carries
out the work of continuous help and education for rehabilitated addicts upon their return
to society, relying on the masses and mobilizing all social forces. Local public security
organs, community organizations, units and families closely cooperate with rehabilitation
centers to establish a social help and education system and various types of help and
education groups, and fully carry out the relevant measures, organically integrating
compulsory rehabilitation with help, education and consolidation measures. Mass
organizations, including the trade unions, the Communist Youth League (CYL) organizations,
the women's federations and the associations of self-employed industrialists and
businessmen, help with the work of rehabilitating addicted women, workers and staff
members, young people and self-employed laborers by making full use of their own
advantages, to great effect. Governments at all levels and grassroots organizations
actively help the rehabilitated addicts to solve concrete problems in their life and work,
so that they will not be discriminated against in employment or admission to higher
education. Many addicts have returned to society and started to lead a new life upon
successful rehabilitation.
Narcotics prohibition and the rehabilitation of addicts are breakthrough points in the
effort to completely solve the drug problem. In recent years, the Inner Mongolia and
Guangxi autonomous regions and Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces have gradually probed a new
way of motivating the drug control work as a whole--starting with the grassroots units
(communities), and stressing drug prohibition and the rehabilitation of addicts, to
establish "drug-free communities." The basic procedure is as follows: With small
communities in cities (sub-districts) and the countryside (towns and townships) as the
lowest units, and under the unified leadership of the organs of state power in the
communities, establishing administrative and working responsibility systems of drug
prohibition covering the whole community, dividing up the responsibilities and assigning a
part to each unit and individual to realize the "drug-free" target and establish
"drug-free communities," continuously enlarging their coverage, and finally
realizing the "drug-free" target in a particular county, city or province.
Baotou City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is a model in this regard. The drug
problem used to be very serious in the city. However, there has been a drive to pronounce
communities there "drug-free" since 1994, stressing drug prohibition and the
rehabilitation of addicts, and establishing the working system of dividing the
responsibilities among the help and education groups and all the local grassroots units.
In this way, a situation has been created where all people in Baotou are taking part in
the anti-drug struggle. At present, the city has a total of 2,169 help and education
groups, implementing the related measures to over 2,000 addicts, and the consolidation
rate of rehabilitation over one year has reached more than 70 percent. It has also
established 1,436 "drug-free communities" (90.2 percent of the total), and
basically realized the "drug-free" target in the entire area.
Experience has proved that the drive to make communities drug- free conforms to the
situation in China and the strategic requirements of mobilizing the entire people to treat
the drug problem comprehensively. "Drug-free community" is an effective vehicle
for protracted combat vs drugs. In 1999, the NNCC publicized nationwide the advanced
experience of Baotou and other cities and made arrangements for activities to establish
"drug- free communities" across the country.
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