Half a century on, the progress is modest indeed. The success rate of even the best of treatment centres remains woefully low. Most medical schools still provide only minimal training in addiction. Many doctors are baffled by it. Yet that which has bedevilled families and befuddled medical science is somehow simply to be solved through the tender mercies of the minister.
Specialized staff are to be set up in welfare offices.
They will screen welfare recipients suspected of addiction. They will administer a written or oral test to confirm their suspicions. They will whisk them off to rehab. They will cut the benefits of those who decline. As public policy, it is laughable.