The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Following the 115th National Day address from His Majesty the King with regards to substance abuse, the National Drug Task Force (NDTF) was formed to tackle substance abuse and substance abuse disorder (SUD).
“An issue that poses a huge threat to our national security, economy, and the wellbeing of our people and our children, and above all, the future of our nation is drugs and substance abuse. We are a small population; every child is precious. We cannot afford to lose any child or for that matter, anyone to substance abuse. We must not allow substance abuse to jeopardize their future. Substance abuse is already taking root among our children, and we cannot let it proliferate. We must act now before it is too late, and do whatever it takes to eradicate this threat. Failure is not an option, if we were to choose to fight the threat of drug abuse with the same zeal as we fought the pandemic, I am very sure we would succeed,” said His Majesty.
The mandate of the task force is to eradicate substance abuse and to ensure no one falls prey to this threat. The organization is composed of the Prime Minister as the Chairperson, the Health Minister, Goonglen, Foreign Minister, Chief of Police and Zimpon Gom with two people from The Pema Secretariat helping in the secretariat work.
In earlier practice, although different agencies were trying their best to implement drug related programs, somehow it didn’t have much impact on the public.
The task force is getting priority in the highest level, even in terms of budgetary support and coordination, which helps them in easier implementation of the activities.
The secretariat is responsible in coordinating and implementing any programs related to substance abuse.
The NDTF stated that recognizing the increasing trend of behavioral and mental health disorders triggered by substance use, His Majesty has called for urgent action to eradicate this threat and ensure that no one falls prey to substance use.
It mentions that substance use disorder (SUD) is a chronic relapsing brain disease and must be treated like any other chronic disease. It requires sustained and compassionate care and support from family and community. SUD is preventable as well as treatable. Hence, to build a safe and healthy community, the National Response to the substance Use Issue was being launched, centered on their commitment to Compassion, Action, Responsibility, and Empathy (CARE).
To start with, The Pema Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) and Ministry of Health (MoH) are screening the students for health and wellbeing in a staggered manner.
Simultaneously, the Royal Bhutan Police in collaboration with the Bhutan Construction and Transport Authority shall test the PDL holders/commercial drivers for substance abuse.
With regard to the students, the strategy they have adopted is through implementation of health and wellbeing programs. Rather than directly going to schools and doing drug test, they are taking a holistic approach and screening the students for physical health.
For now, they are taking a pilot initiative, where the mental aspect related to substance abuse will be carried out. Their screening won’t be direct drug testing but they have developed screening through google forms online. In the near future, they will be coming up with web-based system where the students will have access to online screening.
In the pilot phase, the screening of all class Eleven students from Thimphu will be included, using internationally validated screening tools. This will categorize them accordingly, depending on the different level of issues they are facing such as depression, anxiety disorders, adverse childhood disorder and substance abuse.
Prior to that, the NDTF shared that they have finished involving the necessary preparations. They have trained all the school counsellors and they are going to involve the wellbeing focal in training and orientation on the usage of the tools, interventions and who to refer to hospital and other categories. The students will be briefed by the school authorities on related matters.
To ensure the safety of road user’s professional drivers will also be tested using “Ten Penal Drug Tester”, which can identify ten different kinds of substances including the commonly abused substance in the country. The intention is not for the punishment purpose, he added.
If tested positive, individuals will be sent to treatment centers for further training assessments and interventions. Should people not comply with the treatment interventions, the centers will be notifying the Police and they will do the necessary follow up actions.
A unique initiative by the NDTF is that they have integrated the substance use counselling treatment programs in the hospitals, where they have instituted the follow up support for the individuals. In the near future, these programs will be established in all the district hospitals with follow up drug test to ensure that the individuals are not abusing any substance.
After all the follow up, if the individuals test negative, their license will be lifted by the BCTA. Through the hospital, they will still be following up with the individuals through random drug testing. These measures he says are to ensure that the treated individuals do not get back into substance abuse.
Their aim is to identify, treat, and ensure that individuals don’t use substance. Though maintaining the confidentiality of individuals are to be considered, at the same time they are trying to advocate and look at the level of addiction, and the health issues related to it and provide the needed support.
To make the treatment a success, NDTF said that they have to inform the family members so that they are aware and to ensure that the individual have full support. All in all, they want to destigmatize through sensitization and awareness that the people with SUD are like any persons with chronic health problems.
Gradually, the civil servants, corporate employees, and armed force personnel, among others, will also be screened and provided timely interventions.
NDTF urged all citizens to support this initiative to achieve the shared goal of building a society free from the harmful effects of substance use, for the future of the nation.
