War on drugs continues
The City launched the extension of the Golden Harvest Rehabilitation Centre in Northworld, Johannesburg as part of the City’s war on drugs.
Golden Harvest, which started operating in 2011 as an in-patient centre to cater for 12 teenage boys between the ages of 13 and 17 who are addicted to alcohol and various other drugs, have now been extended to cater for 58 patients, both male and female.
The centre is aimed at providing services to indigent individuals, who cannot afford the cost of accessing private owned rehabilitation centres.
The services are being expanded to cater for male and female addicts, in partnership with the South African National Council on Alcoholism (SANCA).
The facility offers a six week in-patient treatment programme, which entails medical and psycho-social treatment conducted by professional staff.
According to the 2018 SANCA report, between April 2017 and March 2018, the centre provided rehabilitation services to 144 teenage boys between the ages of 13 and 17. The majority of admission were children between 16 and 17 years, accounting for 65% of all admissions.
Of the total admissions, 24 children were admitted for Marijuana as a substance of choice, 15 children for Nyaope, while 12 were admitted for either Methamphetamine, Cat or Mandrax.
In the 2018/19 budget, R30 million in operational expenditure and R12.5 million in capital expenditure have been allocated to the Departments of Health and Social Development to fully capacitate the City’s free Community Substance Abuse Treatment Centres.
