Rehab or torture centres?

That Punjab is a den of rampant drug abuse is a sad reality. What is sadder is the fact that the addicts — who seem to be getting hooked on to the menacing culture at astonishingly younger ages — have hardly any effective recourse to course-correction. In the desperate search for outlets to help them shake off their debilitating habit, their families are ready to loosen the purse strings. But the high costs and charges give little in the name of remedy. Despite the government’s tall promises and claims of being aware of the situation, the state is woefully wanting in the requisite rehabilitation infrastructure. The success stories of addicts having reformed themselves are too few and far between the all-too frequent ones of doomed cases.

And, poignantly, that is not because the addicts are not keen to kick the habit. Many of them have given themselves a shot at healing by seeking treatment that costs up to Rs 30,000 per month in private drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres that have mushroomed in the state. A report on such centres by the health department last year revealed sickeningly frightening facts. The common thread is lack of empathy or sympathy for the inmates and the absence of trained staff. That the addicts are also regularly thrashed in many of the centres just puts the lid on any hope for their betterment. Raids that expose unethical practices and unhygienic conditions followed by the cancellation of such centres’ licences are no deterrents.

Tuesday’s police raid on an unregistered centre near Chamkaur Sahib that freed all 200 inmates, some with broken limbs, will soon end up as another chapter in this seemingly unending horrific saga that Punjab has deteriorated into. It is a shameful and unregulated state of affairs. The government needs to lift the state out of this morass on priority. Yes, the methods remain the same: stifle the drug supply network; spread mass awareness against drugs; improve the centres and methods of treatment. Just an honesty of purpose has to be injected into these ways.