National Narcotics Control Bureau

Treatment

The hub of the drug rehabilitation program is the Drug Rehabilitation Centre (DRC), which was established on Himmafushi Island in 1997. It provides residential care using the therapeutic community model. Facilities at the DRC include a counselling department, library, computer centre, arts and crafts unit, vocational centre, agricultural unit, gymnasium, medical services and a mosque.

Clients graduating from the DRC are transferred to the Halfway House in Male for the community component of their rehabilitation. Programs of the Halfway House are designed to help clients to re-integrate themselves into their families and the community. This includes individual counselling, self-help groups, academic programs, religious guidance, and vocational and language classes. While undergoing the programs clients remain under close supervision, and their drug status is monitored through random urine testing. NNCB also provides assistance to clients in securing employment.

For clients who come through the judicial system, The treatment and rehabilitation program is similar to a parole system. When the residential and the community phases of the program are successfully completed, the legal sentences, if any, are annulled.

The Challenge

Illicit drugs are a global impediment to the social and economic development of nations. The impact of the drug scourge has been particularly severe on the Maldives, threatening her prosperity, good health, and indeed her whole future.

In the past decade we have intensified our efforts to stop the drug menace. But we, as a nation, need to do even more to ensure that criminals, who put their own interests before those of the nation, do not take our common heritage away from us.

The lesson we learn from other countries is that drug abuse is a hydra-like multifaceted issue. It requires a balanced well-coordinated multi-sectoral approach, encompassing measures to stop illicit drugs from entering the country and to reduce the demand for them. Both these aspects are equally important and need to be given the same, high priority.

We, therefore, call upon all Maldivians, as indeed the international community, to support fully our efforts to eliminate the scourge of illicit drugs from the Maldives and beyond our borders. This is the challenge and we must commit ourselves to this challenge.