US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena said illicit drug is a heinous monster everywhere in the world and there is no easy way to tackle it.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of “Prevention of illicit drug use and treatment of drug use disorders for children and adolescents at risk,” a training and workshop programme for drug addicts, he said it preyed on the minds and bodies of vulnerable people, including children, young adults, mature people, boys and girls, rich and poor.
“There is no magic wand, no simple solution to helping people steer clear of the drug monster, but there are some things that we can do to address the myriad of social, psychological and financial security and other forces that induce individuals to be lured by the quick fix offered by drugs,” he said.
He urged all to find the way to avoid the trap of drug abuse and to save those who were already addicted to drugs.
The opening ceremony took place yesterday at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh Centre in the capital.
Apon, a non-government addiction rehabilitation centre in Mohammadpur, is organising the workshop, which is being funded by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC).
Brother Ronald Drahuzole, executive director of Apon, presided over the opening ceremony, while Elizabeth Matfield, co-coordinator of the drug dependency programme at UNODC, Nazmul Ahsan Majumder, director (treatment and rehabilitation) of at the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), ABM Kamrul Ahsan, program co-coordinator of UNODC, and Dr M Enamul Hoque, former director of the DNC, spoke at the event, among others.
Nazmul Ahsan Majumder said the number of drug addicts was high, but there were only four public addiction treatment centres with 65 beds – 40 beds at the Drug Addiction Treatment Centre in Tejgaon and the rest outside Dhaka.
There are no treatment facilities for women and child drug users in the public centres, he said.
“The DNC has given licences to 100 private drug rehabilitation centres to treat the drug users. We are about to complete a 250-bed public hospital in Tejgaon,” he added.
ABM Kamrul Ahsan said more than 700,000 children, adolescents and their families lived on the streets, and around 50% of them were victims of drug abuse, according to the Bureau of Statistics. Most of them do not have access to proper healthcare.
Brother Ronald Drahuzole said a huge number of boys and girls under age 10 were unattended. Most of them were involved in drug-related crimes and other practices.
