Chairperson, hon Minister and members, substance abuse is a growing and horrifying reality of our world today, whoever we are, and wherever we live. Substance abuse is not just limited to rich celebrities sniffing coke. It extends to poor people selling antiretrovirals to be crushed and inhaled, and to babies born with fetal alcohol syndrome.
The effects of substance abuse are not just felt by the users themselves, but by their families, who are often robbed of their pensions, their salaries and any saleable goods in the house that can be sold to feed the user's habits. The community at large is also affected by gangsters who deal in drugs in the schools and on the streets, making them unsafe and uncontrollable.
There are many initiatives to curb and eliminate this dreadful scourge, and we salute the NPOs, such as the Hesketh King Treatment Centre, the Sultan Bahu Outpatient Treatment Centre, the SA National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Sanca, and many others that take substance abusers into their care and try and restore them to be productive members of our communities.
However, the buck actually stops with government. The Department of Safety and Security is responsible for policing our streets and arresting drug dealers - not always successfully. The Department of Education must make sure that our schools are drug- and alcohol-free. The South African Revenue Service, Sars, must ensure that drugs do not enter our borders, etc. However, it is in fact the Department of Social Development which is left to pick up the pieces when all the other measures have failed.
The Department of Health is very protective, and rightly so, of its role in detoxification. It is responsible for all the medical aspects surrounding substance abuse and it has insisted on keeping that role. Whether, of course, it has adequate facilities and qualified medical staff to deal effectively with this ever-increasing problem is another matter altogether.
Social Development is responsible for integrating recovered substances abusers into their families and communities, but it has to work in collaboration and co-operation with all other affected government departments as well. Without this concerted approach on behalf of all government departments, nothing will be achieved, and we will not be able to deal appropriately or effectively with substance abuse.
While it can be argued that we need different pieces of legislation to deal with the different aspects of substance abuse, this is in fact the only one that will deal with the social issues around substance abuse.
While it is essential that all treatment centres established for the treatment and rehabilitation of service users who abuse or are dependent on substances are registered and monitored in order to protect the human rights, dignity and wellbeing of substance abusers, the same applies to halfway houses.
The DA commends the emphasis on skills development in all the treatment and rehabilitation programmes in order to facilitate the reintegration of substance abusers into society.
The first draft of the Bill was so badly drafted and muddled in concept it had to be completely rewritten. For example, in the original Bill, different rules apply to public and private treatment centres. This is totally unacceptable as it is often the state or public treatment centres that are the worst offenders when they should be setting the example. All treatment centres must now comply with the same basic conditions, regardless of whether they are public or private.
Huge pressure has been put on the portfolio committee to pass this Bill today before Parliament rises at the end of June. The result before us is a better version of the Bill, but one which is by no means complete and will probably have to be amended by the new Parliament. This is a shame, as given more time, we would probably have produced a more comprehensive and substantial piece of legislation that would do justice to the immense problem of substance abuse facing our country. However, we believe that the Bill is a small step in the right direction.
I would like to commend my dear friend and colleague, Stuart Farrow, who is also taking a small step in the right direction. After 30 years of being a really habitual smoker, he has given up for the last ten days and I commend him on that. [Applause.]
The DA supports the passing of the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Bill. [Applause.]