THAILAND Women Drug Addicts Overcome Dependency With Nuns' Help

Posted: 13th October 2005

CHACHOENGSAO, Thailand (UCAN) -- In Thailand's "war on drugs," tabloid newspapers have kept score with front-page photos of arrested traffickers, bloody bodies from shootouts and officials ceremonially burning seized narcotics.

Less obvious is the demand side of the equation -- the drug users -- without whom there would be no drug trade. They seem to get attention from the media only when a crazed addict seizes a hostage at knifepoint. But drug users are the ones who must fight addiction, and they can help others do the same.

That insight is one of the keys to success of a Church-run project for women drug addicts. The Rebirth Therapeutic Community Center for Women is situated in Bangkhla, Chachoengsao province, 80 kilometers east of Bangkok.

Tai, a 23-year-old helper at the center run by Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity nuns, knows what it is like to be on the dark side. "I sold myself in exchange for drugs," she told UCA News recently. She described her former dependence on drugs as an around-the-clock affair -- taking amphetamines in the morning, going to "ecstasy parties" at night and using "sleeping pills" before going to bed.

She was arrested twice and was in and out of treatment and rehabilitation centers run by the government until two years ago, when her health deteriorated and she moved to the Church-run center. Now Tai uses her experience to help other recovering women stay with the center's program.

This is another step forward in recovery, according to Sister Ratsamee Wongwai, who directs the center. She explains that drug users cannot change themselves in a short time and helping others effectively boosts their self-confidence toward eventual reintegration into society.

"Drugs are used as tools to escape from troubled lives," Sister Ratsamee said, adding that drug addicts can resort to prostitution and theft to get money for drugs, compounding their original troubles.

Porn, a 23-year-old resident who has been at the center for three years, says she is proud of her transformation from drug addict to someone who cares for drug users. "I took amphetamines before; after that I also used heroin," she told UCA News quietly. Giving them up was not easy, she added, since not taking drugs was physically painful and psychologically traumatic.

She recalled how she even got involved in selling illegal drugs while attending commercial college. "I had contact with drug wholesalers not only for my college but for many cashiers who are drug dealers in computer-game establishments," she said, adding that she was arrested but later released.

Drugs are considered such a menace that Cardinal Michael Michai Kitbunchu of Bangkok, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Thailand, announced in 2003 that the Catholic Church in Thailand would refuse to offer funeral Masses for Catholics involved in the drug trade.

According to a recent report by Thailand's Narcotics Control Board, under the Ministry of Justice, the drug situation in the country remains serious. The report says that over the past few years, construction workers, laborers, students and youths have accounted for the bulk of illegal drug users. The drug "epidemic" in schools has worsened and the number of student drug dealers has increased, the report stated. Sister Ratsamee told of a minibus driver who showed her amphetamine tablets and said they are "easier to buy than candy."

"Most drug addicts began walking the wrong path when they are young," she said, pointing out that residents at her center "are not bad women but saw no alternative."

Sister Kaneung Katekulpan, the center's superintendent in charge of treatment, notes that most drug addicts in the cities are people from middle-class, not poor, families whose life was "lonely and empty."

The center's therapeutic program has two stages, she explained. "Stage one is the detoxification period of eight days," during which drug users take herbal medicines, use the sauna and rest to recover from detoxification.

In stage two, she continued, the women "receive psychological and spiritual therapy while taking part in other activities initiated by our center." Education, group therapy, work and physical exercise are all part of this stage, which usually lasts about 18 months, Sister Kaneung said.

The sisters help women who are making good progress, after three or more months of treatment, to take outside classes or training as preparation for supporting themselves or resuming their education when they leave the center.

Fon, 18, followed the program for only nine months. After she went home, she "returned to taking amphetamines and marijuana," she lamented. Now she is back at the rebirth center for a second time. "I was lonely and thought nobody understood me," she said, recalling how she got started taking amphetamines and diet pills. "When I think of my past," she added, "I know I have made mistakes."

Sister Kaneung estimates that since the center began in 1992, up to 10,000 women have passed through its doors. Like Fon, not all complete the program. Currently about 60 women are undergoing treatment at the center.

Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra initiated a nationwide "War on Drugs" on Feb. 1, 2003, in which the primary target was amphetamines, or "ya ba" (crazy drug) as they are known locally. He appealed to religious and civic groups to join the government in fighting a scourge that he said was causing great harm to society.

Within the first eight weeks of the "war," media were reporting official figures of close to 1,500 people killed directly or indirectly as a result of the campaign, almost all officially attributed to dealers killing suspected or potential informants. By the time Thaksin declared "victory" that December, the death toll crossed 2,000 and more than 30,000 people had been arrested for using or selling drugs. Users who were arrested were forced to go through government de-addiction programs.

In an acknowledgment that the war really was not won, a quieter second war on drugs has been launched. It is accompanied by a war on "dark influences," the nexus of corruption that many believe includes powerful people who protect and profit from the drug trade.

Article Source: UCANEWS