Recovering drug addicts exercising during a rehabilitation program at the Metta Saneain drug addict rehab centre in Yangon. More than a hundred shaven-headed men pour out of their hostel around 6 a.m. for a day of weightlifting, karate drills, dancing, and Buddhist prayer — drug rehabilitation, Myanmar-style
| Photo Credit: AFP
More than a hundred shaven-headed men pour out of their Yangon hostel around 6 a.m. for a day of weightlifting, karate drills, dancing, and Buddhist prayer — Myanmar style of drug rehabilitation.
The group of doctors, musicians, and street food vendors set off for a jog around a verdant, orchid-dotted compound, watched over by supervisors carrying heavy wooden sticks.
Welcome to another day at Metta Saneain — the ‘House of Love’ in Burmese — a rehabilitation centre dishing out tough love to break the cycle of drug addiction.
Myanmar has long been a narcotics-producing powerhouse, with drugs fuelling and financing decades of internal conflict and authorities turning a blind eye to the billion-dollar industry.
The chaos unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup has gutted the legal economy and the country is now the world’s biggest producer of opium and a major source of methamphetamine, according to the United Nations.
Much of the product is smuggled out to other Asian countries, Australia, and Europe, while scoring on the streets of commercial hub and major port Yangon is easy.
Aung, 32, who asked for his full name not to be used for professional reasons, had qualified as a doctor and was running his own clinic when he tried meth for the first time.
Three years later it had taken over his life, he said after a breakfast of hot rice porridge cooked and served by another patient.
“I lost everything. It transformed me from a successful person into a lost young man.”
He was hospitalised three times before his parents brought him to Metta Saneain and its uncompromising regime.
Joining in the karate-style drills, tug-of-war competitions, and meditation sessions was not easy while he still had cravings, he said.
“At the beginning, it was a bit difficult for me to be here. They are always making us do some activity or other, but later I got used to it. “Now I have no time to get bored. It helps me become physically stronger and healthier.”
Angkoon Phattarakorn, a specialist at the Princess Mother National Institute on Drug Abuse Treatment in neighbouring Thailand, said tough approaches can help in the short term but they need to be tailored to individual needs.
Long-term effect
“If some people have a heart problem, they might not do well if you tell them to do heavy exercises,” he said. “People with mental problems might not respond well to meditation.”
There are questions over how effective such schemes are in the long run, he added.
“Drugs are available everywhere now as there are some limitations in controlling them,” said centre administrator San Shein, referring to the current conflict.
Patients’ relatives pay for their treatment at the ‘House of Love’, which costs from around 4,00,000 to one million Myanmar kyat depending on their condition.
The facility has rehabilitated more than 200 people over the past year, said Khin Khin Win, secretary at the Myanmar Drug Addicts Rehabilitation Association (Central), an umbrella group.
After years of turmoil, Aung is now helping as a volunteer doctor at the centre and hopes to pursue a degree in applied psychology. His family now have some hope for him, he said. “I don’t want to use anymore. It’s been a scary thing for me.”
Published – January 07, 2025 10:45 am IST
