Impact of Drug Rehabiliation

Personal
During the drug detox portion of rehab, most individuals experience a series of withdrawal
symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms are psychological and physical conditions which occur as the body
adjusts to the lack of drugs in the system. Some of the most common withdrawal symptoms include:
Depression
Anxiety
Sweat and chills
Hallucinations
Mood swings
Sleeplessness and restlessness

Social
Social exclusion, in the form of homelessness and insecure accommodation, inadequate education and
poor employment skills, is closely associated with problematic drug use. As a response, social
reintegration has emerged as a key aspect of drug treatment and rehabilitation in order to provide
responses to accommodation, education, vocational training and employment support needs of
problem drug users.
Implications
People bearing the stigma of being drug addict face problems in getting employments. This is due to
the reason that nobody wants to be associated with such people. Because of this reason potential
skilled workers are kept out of labor market.
Rehabilitated people face problems in finding shelters and housing because socially being an addict
is connected more to the lifestyle of the person rather his mental and psychological state.
In absence of a community driven approach for treatment the community and family might not be
involved in the treatment and this might increase the chances of relapse since important resources
are being overlooked.
In many cases people who are addicts involve themselves in various crimes. Rehabilitation of such
people would help to bring crime down in the society.

Initiatives
Inclusion of information on substance abuse as an obligatory component of the school curriculum.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has established several de-addiction centers which are
mostly based at the district hospital level: there are about 130 such centers spread across the
country now.
A Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was passed in 1985 and amended in 1989.
In 1999-2000, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, along with the United Nations Office
for Drugs and Crime, undertook for the first time a major national study on the extent, patterns and
trends of substance abuse in the country, a major component of which was a national household
survey (2). This seminal study has become the basis for planning of substance abuse prevention and
treatment strategies. An inter-ministerial collaborative effort has already been initiated.
Various NGOs have been working in alignment with the government for prevention and
rehabilitation of drug addicts.
For every addiction, there are recovery programs and support groups to help those looking to kick
their habits. These resources can help a person to stay happy, healthy and social after the course of
recovery from drug addiction or alcoholism treatment.


Suggestions

Strengthening of NGOs and continuing support to them to provide good quality rehabilitation
services and prevention programs
Development of minimum standards for treatment and rehabilitation.
Setting up of a National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention, for dissemination of resource material on
training, service delivery and research relevant to policy makers, program planners and service
providers.
Active collaboration with the media for effective advocacy campaigns for example social networking
sites like facebook and twitter are powerful tools for creating awareness and imparting information.
Training of medical and paramedical staff in early detection, treatment and rehabilitation of workers
with drug and alcohol problems
A large chunk of street children are under the influence of Drugs. It is imperative to work for the
rehabilitation of these children to save them from addiction
Sensitization towards the factors that drive youth to take drugs