Focus
Recovered addict finds a new life
By Zhang Yan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-10 10:55
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 Meng Jianzhong, a former drug addict, now runs an interior design company in Beijing. |
Once a heavy drug addict, Meng Jianzhong, a 41-year-old Beijing native, plans to establish a fund to help those still fighting addiction. He hopes they can regain their confidence and find direction in life by getting involved in anti-drug campaigns, just as he has.
Meng kicked his addiction after police forced him into a two-year stint in rehabilitation programs, from 2003 and 2005. He opened a new chapter in his life when, in 2007, he started the Chang'an Interior Design Co, in Dongcheng district.
The company has an annual turnover of 250,000 yuan ($36,603) and employs 30 people, including three former drug addicts.
Meng said he will start setting aside 30 percent of the company's annual profits for the fund.
"Although the money is limited, I am willing to reward those who successfully fight addiction and help others do the same," he said.
Meng said he started using drugs heavily sometime around 1992, while running a KTV club in Chaoyang district. He was earning about 600,000 yuan a year and, with plenty of cash to spare, became curious enough to try the drugs that others in his relatively affluent social circle were using. Police detained him in August 2003 after they found him injecting heroin.
According to Meng, when he started the rehabilitation programs he became selfish, introverted and depressed, and he tried hard to resisted the program's discipline. He yawned, his nose ran, he constantly sweated and his entire body ached.
"I had been addicted to drugs for more than a decade, I didn't believe these professionals could make me clean, " said Meng.
But not long after he started the rehabilitation programs he was sent to the Sunflower detox center for three months.
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Meng and seven other addicts lived together with four professional staff at the Sunflower center. They cooked, ate and slept together while working on small projects. Through this process, Meng says his urge to take drugs gradually waned.
Addicts at the center also studied law and psychological education, and had self-examination therapy twice a week, in which they discussed their shortcomings with each other, Meng said.
Criticism at the self-examination therapy was motivational, he said.
"I was frustrated at first, but with others being so tolerant, I felt ashamed and started trying to improve my behavior and be nice to others," he said.
