By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 23: While the state grapples with the problem of drug addiction and has initiated a slew of measures to counter the menace, experts in the field of rehabilitation expressed that addiction is a disease and more than a social problem it is medicinal and the approach to tackle the problem may be reconsidered to make headways.
“Addiction is a disease many people don’t understand that at the moment it is a pandemic. It has been here for hundreds of years…these new drugs are only different…has always been there. The only thing is that we are tackling it incorrectly,” said the first psychiatrist in Meghalaya, Dr Sandi Syiem who runs SANKER—a charitable trust that provides quality mental health care and rehabilitation for all.
Citing the COVID pandemic, he said, “When the COVID pandemic was there people tried all sorts of things it is only when the medical community got together the problem was solved”.
“In the same way addiction needs to be understood, it is a brain disease. It is not a sin or a crime it is not because you want to show off. The whole world drinks but few become alcoholics. In the same way, young people are taking drugs. 25 per cent of the youth tried some form of drugs but not all of them become addicts it is just that some of them become susceptible to the disease and they become addicts,” he added. Talking about interventions, he said, “The disease is exploding because the population is exploding there are very few treatment centres and there is a strain in the rehab centres the only thing is rehab centres need to do much more and we need more rehab centres all across the State and the region”.
“Unscrupulous people are opening rehabilitation centres which are sub-standard, to say the least, and many people because they are frustrated and put their loved ones there and many times the results are disastrous. I am not saying most of the time but sometimes,” he added.
Stressing a need for a regulatory body, he said there is something called the mental health authority which is established here also our suggestion is all these centres need to be regulated across the region. Stating that the initiatives are a step in the right direction, he said, “We need rehab in every district my suggestion to elected representatives is there should be rehabilitation centres in all the sixty constituencies and it will still be full”.
“The numbers have swelled, trained people are less and we have also started a training programme three months part-time counselling programme we can train people to be counsellors in the field,” he added.
Emphasising the need to understand that addiction is a medical problem, he said, ‘The saying once an addict always an addict holds to a certain extent because the disease of addiction does not go away and many people misunderstand that and the people supervising the treatment is a medical community”.
“Right now the medical community has washed its hands saying it is a social problem,” he observed.
He further said, “It is not just the police or the public. It has to be the medical community to lead the treatment of such people and unless it is understood it is a disease we cannot go forward,” he added.
He also informed that Sanker is providing a training programme to doctors from 11 PHCs of the state and doctors from 5 PHCs of Arunachal Pradesh on how to handle addiction.