CAUTION URGED ON DRUG PROGRAMS

Rehabilitation centers offering crash programs to drug addicts may be
doing them more harm than good, according to a study conducted by a
non-government organization.

The study, done by the Well-Spring Foundation, said short-term
therapies do not completely cure a person suffering from drug
addiction and other substance abuse. Instead, they merely suppress his
wants without addressing his needs.

Dr. Rosendo Sualog, a Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB)-accredited
physician, said many of those who have undergone the so-called 45-day
programs in rehabilitation centers are now back in the habit of using
drugs. "Their addiction has caused a relapse," he said.

He cited one case - that of "Rose," 31, who had been addicted to
methampethamine hydrochloride or shabu for the last 13 years. Rose, he
said, started using the drug just to lose weight, but she got hooked
on it over time.

"She reached a point where she had to use the drug just to feel
normal," Sualog said. Rose's family took her to private rehabilitation
in Paranaque City which offer short-term programs. From the day she
entered the place, however, Rose had plan to escape. The place, she
told Sualog, had a prison-like atmosphere and patients were treated
like criminals.

"They want to reform you because you are bad," Sualog said. "They do
not know that you are an addict not because you are bad, but because
you are sick."

Upon her release from the rehab, the first thing Rose looked for was
shabu. She told Sualog that in the rehab, "They only starved me (of
the substance), they never cured me."

Sualog said that such is the danger of a short-term rehabilitation
saying, "It never really kicks the habit." He said that in the United
States, there are already studies indicating that treating addiction
needs at least six months to be considered effective.

He said that in Hazelden, a highly acclaimed rehab center in Center
City, Minnesota, patients are only allowed to go home ater staying in
the place for the minimum six-month period. Thereafter, follow-up
treatment is given through regular check-ups and monthly visits.

"The longer, the better," Sualog said.

Sualog said American experts have recommended tested methods in
rehabilitating addicts. One such expert - Tom Hart, who wrote the
Rehab, a book that examined drug rehabilitation centers in the United
States - said there are three essential things in rehabilitation:
Group therapy, individual counseling and lectures on addiction recovery.

Because existing rehabilitation centers seldom meet these
requirements, the people behind Well-Spring opted to set up their own
rehab at 4 Maayusin St., inside the serene UP Village East in Diliman,
Quezon City last year. Well-Spring can be reached through telephone
nos. 920-5993 and 927-9774. All consultations are confidential.

Anti-drug activists believe that the only way to "completely save the
user" from the menace is to work on the person's immediate environment
- his family.

Joel Macaspac, vice president of Well-Spring Foundation (920-5993),
said, "This formula is simple. You have to work both on the addict and
on his family. If you fail in one of these aspects, you fail on both.
We call the addict's closest kin his co-dependents. They are victims,
too, and they suffer because of their relative's addiction. Through
the years they have sustained deep emotional and psychological wounds
that need to heal."=20