East China's drug rehabilitation to use TCM

JINAN - Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) will be used in addiction treatment by a drug abuse control agency in East China's Shandong province, in a joint research program with a TCM university.

Co-founded by Shandong Drug Abuse Control Bureau and the Shandong TCM University, the TCM rehabilitation research center inaugurated on Tuesday is the first provincial level agency of its kind.

Qi Yan'an, head of the bureau, on Thursday said that TCM therapy including massage, acupuncture, relaxation and herbal medicine have proved effective when treating drug addicts.

He added that the center would combine Western treatment methods and medicine with TCM therapy.

The center is the most recent effort by the provincial government to address its growing drug abuse issue. In 2015, 28,417 drug addicts were seized by the police, bringing the total number to 84,124 in Shandong.

Among the new cases, 17,532 were new drug users. According to the bureau, 81 percent were male, and most were aged between 18 and 35. The youngest was 13 years old.

The bureau has put 3,026 people into compulsory drug treatment.

Qi said that the center would explore TCM to help restore the physical and mental health of addicts. The course usually takes three years.

He added that currently TCM was mainly used to help relieve the discomfort brought on by rehabilitation.