VI. Conclusion

Quitting drugs is quitting drugs, not working like slaves. Most people have been in and out of detox and RTL centers for years, so obviously the authorities don't care about people really quitting drugs and having a better life. If they did care there would be services and help with quitting drugs inside detox and outside too. Instead people leave detox and just get arrested and put back in again. [119]

-Lu, drug user, Nanning

Every IDU whom Human Rights Watch interviewed spoke of an unbreakable cycle of despair. They described falling into drug use accidentally, because of a lost job, harsh working conditions far from home, or curiosity. Every single IDU we interviewed spoke of regret for going down the path of drug use in the first place, entering into a cycle where the only element of consistency comes from the unrelenting pull of addiction.

While the rapid expansion of methadone maintenance programs in China has given many IDUs a new, relatively affordable treatment option, the IDUs with whom we spoke all expressed frustration and a sense of helplessness, explaining that time spent in detox and RTL centers did not help heal their addiction. On the contrary, experience in such centers marked them forever as drug users, created unconquerable levels of stigma for them on their return to society, and left them with no tools or resources to make a healthy and productive life.

Nearly all IDUs we interviewed expressed a desire for vocational training in detox or RTL centers, so that they would have skills to offer upon release. However, IDUs said that even with skills it would be difficult to get a job because employers would be able to find out about their past. Several IDUs told stories of employers yelling at them that they would not hire drug addicts. Those IDUs we interviewed who were HIV-positive said that in addition to the huge stigma faced by drug users, their AIDS diagnosis left them no chance at all of finding work.

Many of the IDUs we interviewed had been married and have children, and several IDUs became emotional during the interview when talking about not being able to get free from addiction while losing and disappointing family members. Liu, an IDU with a small child, said:

I want so badly to quit drugs. When I get out of detox it's so hard because no one will hire me, and now that I have AIDS the situation is even worse. If I could get work, if I could do something productive, I could quit drugs and help my family. But when I try to get a job people find out from the police that I was in detox and then they won't even talk to me.[120]

Su, an HIV-positive drug user with a teenage son, broke into tears when talking about the effect her drug use and inability to break the addiction cycle has had on her family. She said:

I started using drugs in the early 1990s because a friend offered me some and I didn't realize what would end up happening. I want to quit more than anything. I want to have a normal life and be able to be a mother to my son. I have been wasting my life in detox but I don't know how to quit drugs. I need help but there is no help to get. Now I am sick [with AIDS] and when I go to detox I am afraid I will die inside and never see my son again. I wish I could go back and never try drugs.[121]

The cycle of going into detox, being released, not being able to find work, returning to drug use and then being arrested again, appears to have broken the spirit of nearly all the IDUs we spoke with. Many said they were just waiting to die. Many also mentioned that their communities would not accept them. All expressed a sense of hopelessness, with no way to break the cycle.

China has the resources, the ability, and the obligation under international human rights law to provide effective drug dependency treatment and HIV prevention and treatment services to IDUs. Its decision to expand methadone clinics and strengthen peer education and HIV treatment programs has the potential to significantly reduce drug abuse and slow the spread of HIV. If, however, China simultaneously continues the widespread detention of drug users in detox and RTL centers, it will undercut those gains and leave thousands more caught in an unbreakable cycle.