NATION STRUGGLES WITH DRUG ABUSE

Peer-Support Rehabilitation Home Sees Some Success In Helping Addicts

A suspended prison term handed down six years ago was not enough to stop
the 34-year-old gas station worker from using amphetamines, which had
already badly damaged his life.

On the day he was released from the detention house, he rushed to a drug
dealer.

"I was like a complete slave, doing anything to get the 20,000 yen to buy
stimulants that I needed every day to get by," said the man, who asked that
his name be withheld.

After his release, he began stealing from his parents to fund his habit,
and was arrested again after robbing pedestrians and his neighbors more
than 10 times.

"Even before my first arrest, I tried to quit using the drug so many times,
only to learn how vulnerable I was to stimulants," he said.

Despite tight government controls, consumption of illegal drugs -- notably
stimulants known as "kakuseizai," "shabu," or speed -- have soared recently.

Last year, 19,156 people were arrested for violating the Stimulants Control
Law, up 28.6 percent from 1994, when the current rising trend began.

In the same year, 1,545 people were arrested in connection with the use of
marijuana, opium, psychotropic drugs and other narcotics, while 6,357 were
held for violating the Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Control Law,
which prohibits the inhaling of paint thinner and similar chemicals.

But those figures are only the tip of the iceberg. An education
ministry-affiliated think tank estimated last year that there are up to 2.6
million users of stimulants in Japan, with annual consumption exceeding 15
tons.

In 1998, the National Police Agency declared that the country had entered
"the third boom of stimulant abuse," and launched a five-year project to
crack down on the supply and demand of illegal drugs.

"We have made special efforts to destroy an entire route of drug business,
from smugglers to peripheral users," an agency spokesman said.

"Our principle is that arresting suspects most effectively prevents them
from committing further offenses."

At the end of last year, 13,831 of Japan's 49,814 prison inmates -- 27.8
percent -- had been charged with offenses related to stimulant abuse,
according to the Justice Ministry. Some 45.9 percent of 2,504 female
prisoners were offenders of the Stimulants Control Law.

But at least some within the law enforcement community admit that locking
up abusers does not cure them of their habit.

Since 1998, a regional parole board in Chiba Prefecture has conducted urine
tests on offenders of the Stimulants Control Law in an attempt to keep them
off drugs during their probation period.

"Many offenders who received suspended sentences or were released from
prison on parole resume using the drug during their probation period," said
Takahiro Ikoma, the Chiba parole board probation officer who initiated the
testing project.

Ikoma initiated the project in response to the high ratio of second-time
offenders among those arrested over drug-related crimes. In 2000, 49.8
percent of those detained on suspicion of violating the Stimulants Control
Law were being held for the second time or more for the same offense.

The board has so far conducted urine tests on some 70 probationers, with a
warning that the results would be reported to police if they tested positive.

"Unfortunately, we have caught some using stimulants, but the test has
prevented a majority of offenders from using drugs," he said.

Similar tests are conducted at Shimofusa Hospital in Chiba, the only
state-run hospital with a special drug rehabilitation ward.

Some experts say merely tightening the crackdown on drug use will not end
the problem.

According to Mario Inami, a psychiatrist who treats many addicts at Raimon
Mental Clinic in Tokyo's Taito Ward, the current situation is a result of
decades of neglecting to help people kick the habit.

"Authorities have traditionally emphasized only curbing drug use, while
giving almost no aid to those who want to overcome their addictions," Inami
said. "This has pushed many addicts to commit the same offense again and
again, even though they strongly desire to fight their addictions."

Inami believes that between 10 percent and 20 percent of stimulant users
are heavily addicted but have a strong wish to overcome their habit.

The 37-year-old gas station worker took another long journey to end his
stimulant habit after he was arrested a second time following his release
on probation in 1996.

He was sent to a mental hospital to treat his addiction, as well as
symptoms of mental illness caused by the long-term use of stimulants.

While many drug addicts, especially those with serious mental illness, are
widely treated at mental hospitals, such treatment did not help the man.
After a six-month stay, he was eventually kicked out when he was caught
taking stimulants inside the hospital.

Unlike heroin or other narcotics that create a physical dependence,
stimulants are believed to generate a strong psychological dependence, for
which medical treatment often proves ineffective, medical experts said.
Hospital treatment often ends up merely keeping addicts temporarily off
drugs -- just like in prisons.

Tokyo Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Center, a peer-support home in Arakawa
Ward, eventually helped the former addict, who checked in on the strong
recommendation of his psychiatrist.

DARC, founded in 1985 and with 24 branches housing some 200 people across
the country, is the only group home network for drug rehabilitation in Japan.

The man changed through his time at the group home, where he had to share a
room with 10 fellow former drug users and attend meetings three times a day
to confess how and why he became involved in drugs.

"I continued to take stimulants occasionally for three months after I
entered DARC," the man said. "But through sharing my experience with
others, I sort of understood why I needed stimulants and became confident
that I could live without them."

The man has now been clean for four years.

According to Minoru Koda, an instructor at the center and also a former
stimulant user, about 30 percent of those who join the center overcome
their addictions after living a year in a group home.

This is a high rate compared with prisons or mental hospitals, and the
center now receives subsidies from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Koda
said.

"To overcome drug dependence means not just to quit using drugs, but to
learn how to appreciate a life without drugs," Koda said. "We regard drug
addiction as a disease and a result of peculiar personal problems, which
can be cured only by helping addicts find out what their problems are."

While other drug addicts are also accommodated at group homes for
alcoholism, Koda said there are still insufficient resources to cope with
the growth in drug use, especially by younger people.

Experts say the ratio of drug abusers imprisoned to those hospitalized is
10 to 1, and the ratio of those in prison to those accommodated at
mutual-help centers like DARC is 100 to 1.

"Those who can successfully overcome their addictions at DARC may be lucky,
but the situation now is that it may be lucky to just reach DARC," Koda said.