Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 Source: China Daily (China) Contact: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/911 Feedback: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/focus/letters/index.html Address: 15 Huixindongjie, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029 P.R.China Fax: +86 (10) 64918377 Authors: Hu Yan and Yao Lan HOSPITAL TAKES ON ADDICTS' HABITS SHANGHAI: The first four drug addicts stepped into the city's only privately run drug rehabilitation hospital, the Shanghai Huashi Drug Recovery Hospital, yesterday afternoon. The step is the first of many to try and shake their addiction and a stride forward for the local social groups trying to rehabilitate them and other users. Huashi Hospital, jointly backed by Shanghai Yishida Investment Ltd and the Shanghai Huashan Health Development Co, is able to cater for about 80 patients at the moment and it has the goal of becoming China's leading non-government drug recovery centre. The city only has one voluntary drug recovery centre under the government-run Shanghai Mental Health Centre, which has about 40 beds. In addition, the city's detox institute, where people are forced to undergo rehabilitation after being caught by police with drugs - which is under the Shanghai Public Security Bureau - has about 1,000 beds. They are for short-term abstinence of three to six months. If people who have been to the institute are caught using drugs again, they are sent to another facility. They may have to stay there for up to three years. Dai Lili, the director of the hospital, said: "Our hospital will protect patients' privacy." Besides the widely accepted methadone treatment, Chinese traditional medicines and psychotherapy will be introduced to assist patients. Shanghai's first private facility, the Daying Drug Recovery Hospital, opening in October 2001 and was forced to close last year as it could not get enough funding. The number of addicts in the city has been rapidly increasing in recent years with the proportion of young drug-takers growing the fastest. "In Shanghai, about 17,000 people are reportedly drug addicts," said professor Guo Lianfang, an authority in the field. Statistics show most of the addicts are between the ages of 17 and 35. The unemployed account for over 80 per cent of the total. At the detox institute, drug users under the age of 18 account for 2.8 per cent of the total. "Young people between the ages of 18 to 25 account for 36.4 per cent," said Huang Shunmei, who is in charge of the institute. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh