Feb 22, 2010
SHE is a doctor - and she was addicted to prescription drugs, which she started taking a few years ago to help with insomnia.
Seeking treatment and wanting to avoid a scandal, the Singaporean in her 40s flew to Thailand last year and checked herself into a private drug rehabilitation centre for a month.
Wealthy Singaporean executives and entrepreneurs like her are becoming increasingly common visitors at newly opened drug and alcohol rehab centres in Thailand, the centres there told my paper. In fact, those who want to keep their addictions hush-hush and elude tough drug laws here are travelling to destinations as far as the United States to go cold turkey in posh rehab clinics.
In Singapore, there are almost no inpatient drug rehabilitation centres that are not based in hospitals or prisons, said experts here and overseas.
Another factor that drives Singaporean drug addicts overseas is that doctors here are duty-bound to provide the Ministry of Health and the Central Narcotics Bureau with details of patients with drug addictions.
Avoiding detection is the main reason why Singaporeans go to Channah Thailand, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre in Bangkok, said its marketing director, Mr Wade Dupuis. -- MYPAPER
Cold turkey for services.(Editorials)(Treatment cuts invite social disaster)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
Okay, Don't Quit: How to Stop Smoking Without Quitting Cold Turkey
Making Choices (DRUGS, Profiles of Addiction and Recovery)
