Drug addicts receiving treatment hopeful to restart normal life

KABUL (Pajhwok): A 29-year-old drug addicted youth has arrived in Afghanistan all the way from the United States of America (USA) and said the process of rehabilitation was simple in Afghanistan compared to the USA.

Habibullah Hameed, 29, a resident of Kabul province migrated to the USA 24 years ago, six months earlier he arrived in Afghanistan to undergo anti-drug addiction treatment, he is hospitalized in the Kabul Jangalak Hospital now.

Habibullah is student in one of the California University and part time he works in one of the hotels in the city.

He said: “I started taking Hashish when I was 17 years old, I have some friends with them I went out and together we smoked hashish, sometimes we took drinks as well.”

He said the use of Hashish and alcohol was allowed in the USA and every individual could use them.

He said his brother also took drugs and alcohol but he ensured to maintain a proper limit.

“I was always thinking to quit taking drugs one days because it gets more and more if not stopped.”

He said: “May I not be able to give up drug addiction in America, because it was very easy to buy drugs, it can be found everywhere, so my brother decided to bring me to Afghanistan because I am far away from him, nobody sells, I can’t buy from anywhere.”

In less than six months under treatment, he was feeling better and was assured to control himself against drugs.

Habibullah hailed the way of anti-drug treatment in Afghanistan and asked a number of other youths to start anti-drug addiction treatment.

But it is not only Habibullah whose shadow of addiction has darkened his life and he is looking for peace and freedom from addiction to regain his life, but Harun Ahmadi, 27, is also trying to quit addiction.

He said: “It’s been seven years since I became addicted to drugs because of my bad friends. I started with hashish, then I got to shisha, and finally I started using opium, in the past I tried to quit it but during holydays again I started.”

Harun studied school until lass 11th was trainee with a mechanic and had a very good life.

“Before addiction I had a good life, but after addiction I quit everything, addiction impacted my life to the greater extent, my body got weak and my life was destroyed, but now I have decided to stop drug and earn Halal bread, I will get married and have a peaceful life.”

He said that daily he give 300 afs for drugs.

Nazar Dad, another drug addict getting treatment in this hospital, said: “I was on duty when I got injured, I received treatment at the hospital but when I went to Badakhshan province I cannot find medicine there so they gave me opium and I was getting relieve, slowly I started opium and shisha, it continued for two years and then I fought with my family and my condition deteriorated.”

He also termed the use of drug an illicit act and said: “I have experienced with addiction everything destroys, your family, children everyone hit you, now I have 100 percent decided to stop addiction and regain my life.”

He said after 45 days of treatment now my health condition has improved. These interviewed persons hailed doctors and hospital workers and said with the support of doctors and hospital staff his health condition improved.

It is pertinent to mention that in the 450-bed Jangalak drug addicts hospital 260 addicts are hospitalized.

Mohammad Wamq Sharifi, one of the hospital’s doctors, said currently 260 addicts are hospitalized in the hospital.

Pointing to the improvement of the quality of treatment for drug addicts in the last three years, he said that every drug addict is hospitalized for 45 days, but if he is unable to quit addiction during this period, he will be hospitalized for 90 days.

In the past, when addicts completed their treatment, they were introduced to the Ministry of Labor and Community Affairs to learn a skill, but after graduating from the vocational training courses, they went back to the streets.

He added: “Since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan takeover camps had been created by the Ministry of Interior in Kandahar and at some places in Kabul, drug addicts during treatment also learn skills.”

Public Health Ministry’s Spokesperson Dr. Sharaft Zaman said that currently 61 drug addiction hospitals were functional in the country in which 20,000 addicts, including women and children, received treatment.

He said last year 55,000 drug addicts, including women and children, have been rehabilitated.

He said according to a survey in 2017, there were 3.5 million addicts, including 85,000 women, existed in the country.

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