The Salvation Army is pioneering a drug addiction rehabilitation programme through its Men's Social Centre and Britain's generosity assures the operation of the centre for at least another year.

Good news, to say the least.

Interest groups have long lamented the judiciary's sentencing of young drug offenders to periods of incarceration, for what they perceive to be relatively small quantities of marijuana, instead of ordering them into drug rehab.

But believing that none existed, an increasing number of Guyanese have been urging the establishment of drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres across the country, more-so as addiction rates skyrocketed, illicit drugs infiltrated the school's also the prison's systems, and the streets became littered with people "of unsound mind."

Not that illicit drug use is a phenomenon that is peculiar to Guyana. It's a decades-old problem that has festered by our succumbing to "country" pressure - that is, to the glorification of drug trafficking and consumption in a string of movies. The issue has merely become compounded by the choice of Guyana as a transshipment point and by the ready availability of the drug, mostly cocaine, on the local market.

Of a fact, Men's Social Centre is operating in an environment in which the war against drugs appears to be faltering.

The disturbingly high rate of addiction in facility-rich countries, even after repeated treatments, has been unchanged by the panoply of strategies implemented at federal and state levels. The fact that they have failed to prevent a majority of drug users from returning to their addictive behaviour has led some experts to conclude that addiction is incurable.

Researchers have determined that cocaine, the most potent stimulant of natural origin - and extracted from the leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylon coca), which is indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America - "is a potent brain stimulant and one of the most powerfully addictive drugs. Addiction studies have shown that laboratory rats will choose cocaine over food and water. Rats will also take huge electric shocks or press a lever over 10,000 times to get a dose of cocaine. Left on their own, they will inject themselves to death. Humans are different from rats. But rather than electric shocks, human addicts empty their bank accounts, sell their possessions, commit crimes, sell their bodies, and betray their loved ones."

For many users, the lure of drugs is especially irresistible at pageant shows, club and dancehall flings.

People like Men's Social Centre Resident Counsellor, Gordon Sealey, are very aware that the cycle of cocaine addiction begins with a problem, discomfort or some form of emotional or physical pain a person is experiencing.

A former addict, Mr. Sealey, knows that a person who is hooked on drugs finds kicking the habit very difficult to deal with.

Thankfully, he is dedicating his experience, time and energies to helping addicts get back onto the mainstream of societal life.

The Salvation Army works quietly at bridging spiritual and secular realities. But there's only so much it can do. Hence, the call for governmental assistance by the chairman of the Salvation Army's advisory board, Mr. Eddie Boyer, ought to be heeded with a sense of urgency.

The Government should see the overall impact of drug use escalation in a macro perspective and act quickly, so that the withdrawal of drug addicts into separate "people" will be temporary.