Addicts: Set methadone clinics countrywide, majority are in need

IN order to meet the daily illegal drug consumption demand, mostly heroin, one should have between five and 10 packages, sold at not less than 5,000/- each.

It is because a user becomes addicted, with their body seriously demanding such illegal stuff on a regular basis.

Consumption becomes a must because when the addict misses it, they experience, among others, serious body pains, stomach ache that leads into vomiting and diarrhoea as well as runny nose, tear shedding and salivation.

Consumers also lose the appetite and therefore become weaker and weaker, the heroin addicts who attend treatments at Sekou Toure Mwanza Regional Referral Hospital narrate to the ‘Sunday News’.

“We now breathe a sigh of relief after the government set up this methadone clinic. The treatment not only acts as a substitute of heroin in our bodies, but also pulls us out of poverty, among other benefits,” says one of drug users, Mr Feisal Seif.

He clarifies that heroin sets the addicts into poverty since they must, by hook or crook, have money to purchase the stuff.

Some sell their belongings and snatch belongings of others, only to meet their body demands. Worse still, the majority, including him, abandon jobs so as to have enough time for drug consumption.

A-37 year old Seif, who consumed heroin for about four years since 2017 was serving as a driver for the Mwadui Mine in Shinyanga.

The young man reveals that peer groups are one of addiction main sources and no reverse once somebody has tasted the heroin.

“I used to visit the groups for socialisation but knew nothing about their addiction. In the long run the guys convinced me to have at-least a single use. That was my start and I never missed it since then,” he affirms.

The man was in hard times after abandoning the job as nowhere else he could find the money for his daily five heroin packages, rather than engaging in robbery.

He eventually met behaviour change advocates who succeeded to switch him into methadone therapy in 2020.

The young man urges the government to set up methadone clinics country wide, so as to help the addicts avoid costs they incur in search of treatments in Mwanza.

It is because Sekou Toure is one and only hospital that offers methadone services in Lake Zone and neighbouring regions.

As a result, he adds, the addicts with no relatives to accommodate them in Mwanza do either skip or completely miss the services despite their willingness to quit the drugs.

“I do assure that Shinyanga has many addicts in need to quit the heroin but cannot make it due to long distance. Worse still, methadone is not a take away dose.

“Otherwise, we could have been collecting the methadone packages for home use, only to come back after sometime,” he comments.

His colleague from Tabora region, Mr Paschal Bideberi, supports the motion that most addicts are willing to abandon the heroin, but in vain, due to lack of methadone treatment near them.

A 35-year Bideberi who was a police officer but quitted  job due to an addiction, stresses on a need of methadone clinic in Tabora, where the drugs are commonly available.

This young man regrets over losing his job, simply because he wasn’t aware of the presence of methadone and how much the treatment could overthrow his addiction.

His mother used to take him to various sober houses, where the treatments are only for absorption of heroin contamination in the body, but never fight the addiction.

“I was therefore consuming the heroin afresh because the addiction drove me crazy, after a-three month stay in a sober house,” he says.

According to him, he visited three sober houses at different times, with her mother being charged 300,000/- monthly fee but no relief until he got connected to a methadone clinic.

He appreciates the methadone power towards setting the addicts back into normalcy, but calls on the government to connect them to job opportunities after they graduate from treatments.

“We are now energetic and willing to engage in various economic activities. Loitering and idling are sources of addiction,” he says, requesting further that:

If not the jobs in line with their professions, let it be connecting them to youth agriculture programmes the government keeps on introducing.

“Apart from military courses, I’m the driver with a licence for any vehicle,” he says.

Head of Mental Health Department at Sekou Toure Regional Referral Hospital, Dr Meshack Samuel, affirms that the addicts who adhere to methadone dosages do fully recover, with some having already secured the jobs at various institutions.

Normally, he explains, one should have a dose for 24 months, but quick recovery is possible depending how much the body accepts the methadone.

According to him, about 50 addicts have graduated so far since the introduction of the Medically Assisted Therapy (MAT) project at Sekou Toure in 2018.

However, some are still on treatments since then due to body hormones delay to receive the methadone, but also mixing the methadone with illegal drugs.

Health providers at Sekou Toure keep on educating the addicts on negatives of such a mix, says Dr Samuel, adding that:

Not only heroin but also cannabis, alcohol, valium and cigarettes are strictly forbidden to persons on methadone dose. Long term addiction might even cause death when the drugs go in the brain, settling on an area that controls heartbeats and breathing systems.

“That is when the addict dies in a sleep,” affirms Dr Samuel, who is an expert in mental health issues.

The addicts at Sekou Toure are also educated on how easily they can contact HIV/AIDS through syringe sharing for drug injection. They can also have serious body damage when the injection goes on muscles, instead of blood vessels.

“In totality, the addicts are prone to communicable diseases. Some have no time for condom use negotiation, especially sex workers,” he expounds.

However, Dr Samuel commends the youth response on methadone, as Sekou Toure serves over 300 addicts as of now.