A drive has been launched against so-called drug addiction rehabilitation centers and mental hospitals as hundreds of such illegal centres have mushroomed across the country.
The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) has launched the crackdown recently following the brutal death of Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anisul Karim by the staffers of a private hospital named, 'Mind Aid’ in capital’s Adabar.
As part of the drive, the DNC already has sealed-off three of the so-called drug rehabilitation centers in capital in the last three days.
According to the DNC, those rehabilitation centres have been shut down were ‘Holy Life’ at Mirpur, ‘Lubna’ at Uttara and ‘Shanti Nibas’ at Badda.
DNC officials said they would conduct drives against all the illegal drug addiction rehabilitation centres and mental hospitals across the country gradually. At the same time, the DNC officials said that a campaign will be launched in all the approved drug addiction rehabilitation centers and mental hospitals to see whether they are providing treatment facilities properly.
According to sources, since the number of government centres for drug addiction rehabilitation centres are very few, hundreds of illegal centres for drug addiction rehabilitation have mushroomed in last 20 years. They neither maintain the rules and regulations of the government nor provide proper treatment. Those centres have been running their business only for money.
The sources also said over 1,200 illegal centres for drug addiction rehabilitation have been identified while the number of approved centres for drug addiction rehabilitation is only 312, including 105 in the capital Dhaka.
The DNC officials said that apart from realising of a huge amount of money from the patients and their families or relatives. It is also alleged that the drug addiction rehabilitation centres are used to torture the patients in the name of treatment. They have no required medical equipment and expert doctors or nurses.
Many of such so called rehab centres are allegedly running their business illegally with the help of local criminals, DNC authorities and political shelters. Therefore, none could protest against their illegal activities.
DNC Director General Mohammad Ahsan Jaber said that they already sealed off three illegal centres for drug addiction rehabilitation and their licenses have also been cancelled. The rest of such illegal institutions will also be shutdown.
“Although it is unfortunate, but it is true that everyone had been silent on it for so long. The death of a police officer has shaken all of us. Now many complaints are reaching us, which need to be addressed”, said the DNC DG.
Talking about ‘Mind Aid’ hospital in Adabar where a senior police official was tortured to death in the name of treatment, the DNC DG said this hospital had taken approval from the DNC for the purpose of drug addiction rehabilitation, but they had been running a mental hospital, which was totally illegal.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Shafiqul Islam said, "Those who are committing such kind of crimes in the name of offering mental healthcare services will be punished."
“We are constantly monitoring those who are doing this business illegally as well as trying to bring them under the law. These drug addiction treatment centers have to have legal papers. Strict action will be taken in case of violation of law,” said the DMP Commissioner.
However, many have questioned how do such illegal mental health care or even drug correction centres emerge years after years under the very nose of the authorities, especially DNC who have the right to inspect and approve the legal services.
Some physicians, requesting anonymity, said that it is the responsibility of DNC to monitor and regularly check for any irregularities as per the set rules of the government. It is also alleged that respective DNC officials allegedly get ‘fat’ amount of bribes just to ignore inspection and pass a ‘clean’ bill on such illegal rehab centres.
