The dark world will submit to its present treatment

Surprise, surprise! As I forecast. there's confusion over where to put the drug users 'sentenced' to rehab. The Department of Social Affairs has admitted that they are totally unprepared to accept even a small proportion of them. They have only 33 such centres on their books, with total capacity for 1000 addicts, Their spokesperson admits that there may be others that don't "meet our minimum standards." I'd hate to see what those look like - although I think I've already seen several.

Those are the ones that they monitor. The mental hospitals (many of which have turned addiction into a lucrative business) add some more places, and one assumes that these are properly monitored by the Health Department (or not as the case may be). Of course, as I noted a few days back, they'll shortly all be full of failed parliamentary candidates.

Then there are the 'faith-based' ones (to use the 'in' term); I guess they are monitored by the Religious Department (yes, there is one here!). Among these are the centres located in cool hilly areas that wake residents up at 2 a.m. for a dunking in a cold bath. You need extremely strong faith to survive that!

Since no doubt the judges will obey the Supreme Court ruling (I'm sure that they always do what they are told), supply will respond to demand. Prepare for a mushrooming of rehabs that fail to meet the low minimum standards of the Social Department.

In some ways, the sad thing is that, as I noted in my report on a prisons workshop, the prisons are finally getting their act together, and treating (in both senses of the word) prisoners with HIV better. While still very limited, they have the staff, the facilities, and the increasing will to respond. Is there any chance that even the rehabs that meet the minimum standards will provide such services? Fergetit!

Babé