Drug abuse treatment in Thailand, Pathum Thani - 03 Aug 2017

Thai female patients in a drug rehabilitation program learn beauty services as part of a job skill learning course at the Princess Mother National Institute on Drug Abuse Treatment in Pathum Thani province, Thailand, 03 August 2017 (issued 06 August 2017). Thailand admitted the country's war on drugs, declared decades ago, was never won as the number of drug addicts and drug related offenses has increased. The military junta government has launched a harm reduction program to tackle the drug addiction problem, made it priority to treat drug users as patients and send them to rehab instead of prison. In 2016 more than 4,000 addicts have joined the government?s voluntary rehabilitation program at the Princess Mother National Institute on Drug Abuse Treatment, formerly known as Thanyarak Hospital, the state-run rehab center offering a four-month Matrix program; drug rehabilitation treatment occurs in four phases of preparation by interview and counseling, medical detoxification, rehabilitation including a cognitive behavior therapy and follow-up. The hospital also provides job skills instruction such as Thai massage, beauty salon services and embroidery. The Public Health Ministry estimates that about 2.7 million people became drug users in 2016, many of them addicted to Ya Ba, which translates in English as 'crazy medicine', a tablet containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine. The number of young Thai drug abusers had increased, as the youngest recorded was nine-year-old.