Underscoring Drug Addiction as a Health Problem

Screengrab from Inquirer.net

CHEERS TO the Philippine Daily Inquirer for drawing attention to a less covered issue in the administration’s war on drugs: the health and rehabilitation of drug dependents. The media had simply followed the government’s orientation which concentrated its resources on the crime-fighting strategy.

Published on Nov. 13, the “Rehab Challenge” by the Inquirer research team presented drug addiction as a health problem and discussed the rehabilitation process for drug dependents.

The one-page infographic noted the effects of drugs to the body and the symptoms in diagnosing drug dependency. It also profiled drug abusers in the country, detailed the rehabilitation process and the qualifications for rehab treatment of patients, as there are those who need more than just rehabilitation efforts.

CMFR also cheered Philstar.com’s microsite’s (Sept. 26) special webpage which examined the administration’s war on drugs through four main categories of impact including policy, health, poverty and rule of law.

There are 1.8 million drug users in the country, according to a 2015 survey of the Office of the President’s Dangerous Drugs Board. About 700,000 of this number surrendered as of Nov. 7. The country has only 44 drug rehabilitation centers and only 15 of those are public that can only accommodate 5,000 patients.

The government said in September that it would open a temporary rehabilitation and treatment facility in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija, which can lodge 10,000 patients. The rehabilitation center had a soft opening in mid-October. Department of Health Secretary Paulyn Rosell-Ubial announced that the facility will be fully operational in November.