A new life with Sunshine

Guizhou has attained remarkable results in consolidating the rehabilitation of former drug addicts by taking care of them

Drug addicts constitute a special group that requires effective management and special care from the government.

China's law on narcotics control explicitly stipulates that community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation should be carried out for drug addicts. Such a model represents China's successful experience in fighting narcotics and a new task to reinforce and innovate the administration of the country's narcotics control.

The high incidence of relapse is now the main challenge for community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation. Because of their difficulties in finding jobs and integrating into society, rehabilitated persons usually return to drug addiction, forming a vicious circle of compulsory detoxification and relapse. Thus, how governments at various levels can help newly rehabilitated people find employment, consolidate their abstinence, lower their relapse incidence and then reinforce their detoxification and rehabilitation remains a pressing task.

In this respect, Guizhou province has made great progress. The provincial government has attached great importance to its detoxification and rehabilitation work and set up a new model for community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation, which is focused on "physiological detoxification, physical and physiological rehabilitation, employment settlement and social integration". The province has also established the Sunshine Project, "sunshine enterprises" and "sunshine homelands", to rehabilitate drug addicts and help them find jobs and settle into normal lives.

There are some outstanding problems in the country's drug abstention and rehabilitation work, as indicated by an excessive emphasis on crackdowns, punishment, compulsory detoxification and venue management, with much less attention paid to education, the consolidation of achieved detoxification, employment and living arrangements. As a result, the incidence of re-addiction still remains very high in the country, although great efforts and heavy investment have been made in terms of crackdowns, punishment and the compulsory detoxification of drug addicts.

In view of this, the Guizhou provincial government has changed its traditional anti-drug concepts and innovated methods that give priority to the employment and settlement of drug addicts and rehabilitated people as a way to facilitate their detoxification and rehabilitation. To this end, a large number of Sunshine Project demonstration bases have been established. Statistics show that 93 enterprises were participating in the construction of the Sunshine Project in the province by the end of May, and 51 sunshine enterprises and sunshine homelands had been completed, employing and settling 2,162 rehabilitated drug addicts.

Such a model has helped rehabilitated addicts free themselves from their physical and psychological addiction to narcotics, rebuilt their confidence and integrated them into society.

The Guizhou provincial government has also offered huge policy and financial support to its narcotics control and rehabilitation work. Governments at various levels have all included the expenditures for the construction of community-based rehabilitation and job placement into their fiscal budgets. For example, the provincial financial department has promised a total of 20.25 million yuan ($3.18 million) for expenditures on constructing the Sunshine Project up until 2014. Local governments at various levels have also included the spending on methadone maintenance therapy into local fiscal budgets to provide free therapeutic services for rehabilitated people employed by sunshine enterprises and sunshine homelands. Preferential policy support, such as tax cuts, has also been extended to those enterprises engaging in community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation work. At the same time, practical measures have been taken to improve the local social security system to include qualified community-based rehabilitated people into the local network of minimum living allowances.

Practical measures have also been taken by the Guizhou provincial government to promote the sound and sustainable development of the Sunshine Project.

First, working teams for community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation have been set up. Much effort has been made to give a leading role to sub-district offices at township level and to coordinate the departments concerned to solve problems concerning rehabilitation, medical treatment, labor, training, employment, life and other aspects. As required by the provincial narcotics control commission, full-time personnel are recruited and admitted through public examination. So far, 3,207 staff members have been recruited in Guizhou.

A mechanism for mutual care and help has also been set up, under which care and assistance services have been given to people who are undertaking ongoing community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation.

Besides, a specialized skill training mechanism has been established. Local human resources and social security departments have included the skill training mechanism for people receiving community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation into their labor-skills training plan. Local finance has set up a unified training fund for this purpose. At the same time, a supervision mechanism for the Sunshine Project has also been established.

Through the construction of the Sunshine Project and the implementation of employment and settlement measures, Guizhou has accomplished remarkable results in consolidating rehabilitation achievements, reduced criminal activities and promoted stable public security. The incidence of relapse among former drug addicts has drastically declined and public security conditions in the province have obviously improved.

With its Sunshine Project, Guizhou has succeeded in reintroducing drug addicts into society through the community-based drug abstention and rehabilitation and creating a new social administration model for narcotics control. Its experiences are expected to help other regions better deal with the same thorny issue.

The author is director of Guizhou Provincial Narcotics Control Commission.

(China Daily 06/27/2012 page10)