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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MUNASHE Masekesa (not real name) was born and raised in a middle class family that could afford to build a decent home in one of the sprouting suburbs of Mutare.
With both parents formally employed, the Masekesas could afford to send their children to the city’s private schools.
Now in Form Four, young Munashe has been going to a school in the periphery of Mutare’s Central Business District.
At this school, Munashe succumbed to the enticing forces of peer pressure and started taking marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol.
Selling fruits and vegetables at the family’s shop after school gave the family the wrong impression of an entrepreneurial mindset in the young man.
On the contrary, proceeds from his daily sales were meant to finance his drug abuse escapades which soon saw the teenager also being exposed to hard drugs such as cocaine and crystal meth, better known as guka makafela, dombo or mutoriro.
Unfortunately for Munashe, hopes of completing his Ordinary Level studies are fading like morning dew after the youngster recently developed mental health challenges which have seen him becoming violent, singing loudly during odd hours and making incoherent speeches largely due to the effects of his addiction to drugs.
Consequently, Munashe is now being kept chained to his bed as his family avoids destruction of property and the stigma and humiliation that comes with such ailments.
Regular visits to local medical institutions have seen Munashe getting tranquilisers administered on him.
This has yielded little progress.
As his condition remains heartbreaking, traditional beliefs have not spared the family of scorn.
Some gossip mongers in the hood have been quick to point a finger at the speed at which the family completed the construction of their house.
They say juju was at play and that they are now paying for their sins.
But this situation is not peculiar to the Masekesa family as many youths and families across the country fall victim to use of hard drugs.
Several youngsters have lost their minds due to drug abuse.
Such are the depths of the lack of knowledge when it comes to the consequences of drug abuse.
The lack of public rehabilitation facilities for drug users across the country also compound the situation.
Families like Munashe’s find themselves dealing with their loved ones’ conditions without any knowledge on how to effectively handle it.
They just resign to fate!
Families in such a predicament are suffering in silence, given the lack of public rehabilitation centres for drug users in the county.
After reading adverts that have been circulating on social media platforms, one becomes hopeful that the necessary support for Persons Who Use and Inject Drugs (PWUID) is being made available.
One of the messages read in part: “Here is a list of institutions that provide counselling and rehabilitation services for patients battling drug addiction: Highlands Halfway Home; Ruwa Rehabilitation Centre; Serenity Mind Centre; Mandipa Hope Rehabilitation; Tirivanhu Rehabilitation; Mubatirapamwe Trust; Beatrice Rehabilitation Centre, Harare; Tariro Rehabilitation Centre, Harare; For Youths By Youths, Harare and Mashonaland West.
“The following public psychiatric institutions also offer help in fighting drug addiction: Sally Mugabe Psychiatric Unit (Harare); Parirenyatwa Annex Psychiatric Unit (Harare); Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital (Bulawayo); Ngomahuru Hospital and Halfway House (Masvingo).”
At face value, this message gives the impression that Zimbabweans have choices when it comes to medical attention when fighting drug addiction or use.
That is certainly not the case!
To begin with, all the institutions in the second part of that message are mental health institutions.
Drug users are not mental patients.
They are just like every one of us, although they are in need of some rehabilititation that can wean them off their drug addiction. Now owing to the lack of the adequate relevant institutions, they are referred to mental health institutions.
Some of these institutions are private and very expensive.
Their charges are beyond the reach of ordinary Zimbabweans.
ln addition, most, if not all of the rehabilitation centres for drug users, are only found in Harare.
A cursory research conducted by this newspaper revealed that it costs US$1 300 for one to be admitted at one private drug rehabilitation centre for one month, while others range between US$2400 to US$3200 per month.
For one hour medical attention at a private drug rehabilitation facility, there is need for an initial payment of US$100 and US$60 for each subsequent visit.
Speaking to journalists at a workshop held in Chinhoyi recently, Mr Wilson Box, an officer with the Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network said Zimbabwe is in dire need of rehabilitation centres to treat people who use drugs.
“The rehabilitation centres can act as a one-stop shop where other health services like testing for HIV and Aids is done together with other treatment services.
“The logic for this is simple, and that is to leave no one behind in Zimbabwe’s quest for a healthy nation by 2030. The current scenario obtaining is not doing any good to Persons Who Use and Inject Drugs. Current rehabilitation centres which are mostly private owned are expensive and beyond the reach of many,” said Mr Box.
During the same workshop, Health and Child Care Deputy Minister, Dr John Mangwiro concurred with Mr Box’s sentiments.
“It is a fact that we really need rehabilitation centres for PWUIDs, and Government is alive to that fact. However, we are not just sitting and doing nothing about it. We have instructed our medical institutions from district level to establish small apartments to cater for that. This is a short term measure meant to help the situation while we gather resources to establish long lasting solutions,” said Dr Mangwiro.
Drug abuse has chewed into Zimbabwe’s moral fabric with statistics showing that an estimated 60 percent of young people aged 16 to 35 could have used or are using illicit substances.
As if that is not enough, drug use at the workplace is also on the increase countrywide.
Statistics availed by Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network reveal that 30 percent of youths are abusing the highly addictive crystal meth.
Consequently, substance use in Zimbabwe has resulted in 80 percent of admissions to mental health institutions being people aged between 16 and 40.
Commonly used drugs in Zimbabwe include marijuana, codeine based substances, crystal meth, illicit brews, cocaine, heroine, domestic substances, ecstasy, prescription drugs, histalix and glue.
Sadly, illicit drug use is linked with HIV and Aids owing to the users’ altered judgment that leads them to engage in impulsive and unsafe behaviour.
In fact, it has been noted that drug users are 22 times more at risk of contracting HIV when compared with the general population.
Available statistics indicate that on average, one in 10 new HIV infections are caused by the sharing of needles, which is a common phenomenon among drug users.
Given this background, the acute need for public rehabilitation centres for PWUIDs comes to the fore.
Online Reporter