Ho Chi Minh City authorities detected and handled over 700 drug addicts on Friday, the first day of their campaign to send drug addicts to compulsory detoxification centers.

>> HCMC starts sending drug addicts to rehabilitation centers >> 7,000 added to list of drug addicts annually in Vietnam: ministry The campaign officially kicked off at 5:00 am them same day in all 24 districts comprising 332 wards, communes, and towns of the city under the direction of the local People’s Committee.

It is aimed at identifying and sending junkies all over the city to rehabilitation centers, where health and other experts will stop drug addicts' rush on the spot, offer them preliminary detoxification, and provide them with psychological consultancy, pending court orders to officially admit them to compulsory detoxification centers.

By 4:00 pm the same day, competent agencies had detected 1,203 people with signs of drug addiction, 715 of whom were then confirmed to be addicts.

Of them, 643 have no stable residence, according to competent agencies.

After checking their personal information, officers made a list of 437 addicts without stable residence, including 119 in District 8, 116 in District 12, 56 in Binh Tan District, 92 in Binh Chanh District, and the others in some other districts.

No drug addicts were found in District 3 and Can Gio District yesterday.  

Government bodies transferred 253 out of the 437 addicts to the Binh Trieu Rehabilitation Center in Binh Thanh District and the Nhi Xuan Vocational Training and Job Creation Center in Hoc Mon District.

Meanwhile, 72 addicts with confirmed home addresses have been handed over to their local authorities pursuant to applicable regulations.

Hua Ngoc Thuan, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee, said sending drug addicts without stable residence to rehabilitation centers is a major task the city is to fulfill before the coming Tet (Vietnam’s Lunar New Year) holiday, which falls on February 19, 2015.

Therefore, the committee has requested that all the district authorities complete the task before February 8.

The city also directed the Health Department to deploy two ambulances and two teams of doctors to the Binh Trieu Rehabilitation Center and the Nhi Xuan Vocational Training and Job Creation Center to assist them in dealing with drug addicts.

The campaign was initiated after the National Assembly adopted a resolution on November 10 to allow junkies to be sent to rehab facilities pending court judgments. 

Pursuant to the Law on the Handling of Administrative Violations, which took effect on January 1, 2014, addicts can be sent to a drug detoxification facility only when a court judgment is issued for this purpose and when they fail to stay sober after being monitored for three to six months by local authorities.

The resolution was passed following growing concerns that letting loose addicts may lead to social problems like crimes or robberies as most of them have no jobs and homes.

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