Bandar Seri Begawan - The Brunei government strengthens its collaboration with a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), The National Anti-Drug Assocation of Brunei Darussalam (Basmida) to battle pressing drug issues faced by drug dependants in the country.

For the first time, the government is sponsoring BASMIDA to go on a "study visit" to Thailand with governmental Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officers, to be trained on treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts.

The delegation included the President of Basmida Datin Hjh Masni Hj Mohd Ali, who left the country yesterday in her capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the Al-Islah Centre Advisory Committee. Following her to Thailand are Vice-President of Basmida Dyg Linda Aini Abdullah, Treasurer Dyg Hjh Ramlah Hj Abd Ghani and three NCB officers. Different methods and practices adopted in Thailand to treat and rehabilitate drug addicts will be compared and critically analysed by the delegation to identify the best practices and methods, which may be employed in Brunei to help local sufferers.

According to Datin Hjh Masni, "drugs and substance abuse being a threat to the fabric of society, will take its toli through the potential years of human life lost due to accidents and violence, and youth who cannot work productively'.

With the improvement of global communication, not a single nation is free from drug abuse and illegal drug trafficking problems. "It is therefore, important that we are up-to-date with the techniques successfully employed by other countries in combatting this problem," she said, adding that this delegation is "serving just that purpose".

Datin Hjh Masni told The Brunei Times in an interview that Brunei's drug addiction rate appears to be decreasing with the employment of a Therapeutic Community (TC) method. She said that this is an effective "family-friendly way" to provide support to addicts in stripping themselves off their drug habits: "So far, there has been no re-offending by those treated at the Al-Islah Centre."

The entourage will be visiting the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) of Thailand today, where they will be briefed on ONCB's structure and international cooperation on drug control, and demand reduction strategy. Later in the afternoon, they will also pay a visit to the Pharamongkutklao Hospital, where they will be introduced to the topic on psychiatric intervention for drug addicts suffering from psychiatric co-morbidity such as psychosis, depression, anxiety, paranoia and so on.

The next day, the delegation will visit the Thanyarak Institute, a drug addict rehabilitation centre, to observe compulsory rehabilitation activities devised for drug addicts. To observe drug rehabilitation activities for psychiatric inmates, the programme includes a visit to a separate male and female Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts in the Pathumthani Province. The delegation will be returning to Brunei on November 5, 2009.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment