![]() "We do follow up for a year with those men who have finished the programme and at least 60 per cent of the men are still clean at the end of that period."Īnthony Richards, 40, a former policeman who recently completed the programme at Teen Challenge and now works at the facility, has seen the problem of drug abuse from both sides of the fence. "As with any rehabilitation programme we have a lot of dropouts," says Richards. "For someone to enter the programme they have to admit that they have a problem and know that they can't do it on their own," says Teen Challenge Jamaica's director, Austin Richards, himself a former crack cocaine addict.īut evidence in a Christian environment, the drop-out rate for drug addicts in rehabilitation is high. It operates on the premise that Jesus Christ and a lifestyle following his teachings are fundamental to recovery from drug addiction. Teen Challenge Jamaica, for instance, is associated with the with the Christian-based Teen Challenge International which is headquartered in the United States. ![]() but we have found it difficult to get international support for improving rehabilitation services here," he says.Īs it is, most of the rehabilitation facilities are private, run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). "We submitted a comprehensive plan to the European Union on strengthening the follow-up of addicts. "Many cases would need in-house treatment and many of these are not available especially outside of Kingston and St Andrew," he adds.Īccording to Tucker, expanding the availability of rehabilitation facilities and putting in place a national program for the follow-up of recovering addicts are among the ideas in a five-year drug abuse prevention plan drafted by his organisation in 1997. "Most hospitals offer detoxification, but treatment and rehabilitation is different," explains Michael Tucker, the executive director of the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA), a government-supported agency that promotes anti-drug programmes. With the closure of the facility at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, all the residential treatment centres are now in Kingston. More users of drugs mean potentially more addicts to treat, but three years ago, the six residential facilities - the Assessment and Detoxification Centre and Ward 21 at the UHWI, Patricia House, Teen Challenge, the William Chamberlain Rehab Centre - combined dealt with only 430 cases. "Drug addiction is a matter of growing concern as both a law enforcement and public health issue," Peter Phillips, the island's national security minister, conceded recently. Now, it's cheap, and highly-addictive, variant, crack, is readily available to poorer Jamaicans. In the early days, too, a high price made cocaine the drug of choice for well-to-do Jamaicans. Moreover, law enforcement officials say, an increasing amount of the drug stays in Jamaica to be used by local addicts. In a decade since the Stone survey, however, the drug scene has changed dramatically in Jamaica, not least in the fact that the island has emerged as a major transshipment point for cocaine from Colombia headed for North America and Europe. There is, in fact, no recent statistics on the number of drug addicts in Jamaica but a 1991 survey by the late Professor Carl Stone estimated that there were approximately 20,000 crack and cocaine users in the island, a drop of nearly 10 per cent on two years earlier. A sixth, the Chemical Addiction Unit and Psychiatric Ward at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, was closed recently. The problem is that only five facilities exist in Jamaica and can accommodate only a small amount of their potential clients, officials say. "I did not really want to but eventually I did," Anderson says.Īnderson, the experts say, is among the lucky few from among Jamaica's increasingly visible - and perhaps growing - population of drug addicts able to find residential treatment for their addiction. ![]() Like many crack cocaine addicts, Anderson spent time on the streets, but was encouraged by his parents and friends, he says, "to give rehab another chance." But still the very day I left there I went back on the crack." "Then I went to Patricia House, which helped me more than detox. "I first went to the detoxification unit at UHWI (University Hospital of the West Indies) but it never really help me," he says. This is his third try at kicking the habit. He has a month left of his one-year rehabilitation at the Teen Challenge Jamaica Facility on Hopefield Avenue in Kingston.Īnderson is a crack cocaine addict. He, however, has not been performing recently.īut he believes that he is preparing himself for a big comeback. He used to play the base guitar in the band SANE - Sounds Against Negative Expressions.
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