1995-99: 24,000 PLUS DRUG ABUSERS ADMITTED TO REHABILITATION CENTERS

AT LEAST 21,291 new drug users, and another 2,919 backsliding users were
admitted to drug treatment and rehabilitation centers during the last
five-year period (1995-99), an opposition lawmaker disclosed yesterday.

Bohol Rep. Ernesto Herrera (Lakas) made this revelation as he underscored
the need for Congress to approve a multi-year plan to expand the country’s
existing 30 residential drug rehabilitation centers (DRCs).

Herrera, founding chair of the Citizen’s DrugWatch Foundation Inc., said a
growing number of drug users are being refused admission to residential DRCs
because of congestion.

He said those refused admission end up being referred to outpatient centers,
or are simply turned away.

“Government’s growing dependence on privately operated DRCs have also made
drug rehabilitation very costly,” Herrera said.

“There’s really an urgent need for Congress to support the establishment of
more state-run DRCs, particularly in the provinces,” the former chair of the
Senate special committee on illegal drugs added.

The number of both new and relapsed drug users admitted to DRCs increased by
nearly 10 percent from 4,938 in 1998 to 5,455 last year.

Herrera stressed that growing drug use by Filipinos is both a health and law
enforcement problem. He said action should be taken to make drug
rehabilitation clinics more accessible to the people in need of their
services.