Drug Rehabilitation in San
Miguel
Drug rehabilitation has been an issue in San Miguel for a long time, but it was only
about four years ago when two institutions were established here. One is ASURAD, a
low income welfare institution with centers in Celaya and Dolores Hidalgo. The other
is film producer Gustavo Alatriste's TZOL, a luxury clinic at Los Frailes.
The judicial police and doctors agree that drugs are a problem in San Miguel, especially
cocaine. Use is increasing. Cocaine is no longer a "rich man's
drug"-it has become cheap and is easily available. For a long time private
counseling and AA or NA groups were the only options.
Four years ago Alatriste built TZOL, a luxurious compound in Los Frailes, with its own
swimming pool, gym, gardens, chapel, helicopter pad and a pyramid that houses one of the
session rooms.
At TZOL there are patients from Mexico, Latin America and the United States. TZOL
promotes its services via the Internet. The cost is $48,000 pesos for four weeks,
which is the initial treatment phase. Then patients are usually taken to a halfway
house, also in Los Frailes, for further rehabilitation. According to Carranza, the
center has treated about 5,000 families. He says a study of 1,500 of their patients
showed a 86 percent recovery rate.
ASURAD was founded three years ago by Ramon Balderas Lara from Celaya, in an attempt to
offer help to the people who most needed it. Being treated at ASURAD at the moment
are patients from the San Miguel area, Dolores Hidalgo, Celaya and from as far away as
Morelia, Michoacan. The treatment is free and has sustained itself with voluntary
donations from family members and people of good will--"gente de buena
voluntad." Both centers are full, at their capacity of 70 people in Dolores and
50 to 60 in Celaya.
Only male patients are accepted, which corresponds to the needs of the area, where drug
and alcohol addiction still is largely the domain of men. Clients are mostly young men,
from 16 to 35, but there are older people and young boys as well. They use solvents,
marihuana and, increasingly, cocaine.
The system used is individual and group treatment with the 12 Steps program. A
general physician and a psychologist are in charge. During the stay that can be
prolonged from the obligatory first three months to nine months or a year, the men learn a
handicraft, produce "artesanias," paintings, leather bags, etc. which are then
sold to pay their expenses.
"Nobody is rejected," says Victor Manuel Perez, the sub-director. "If
someone has no money, it would be wrong to reject him, just because he can't pay."
Patients are often brought in by the police or by family members, even against
their will.
"That was my case," says one of the young men who collects contributions in
the Jardín and agreed to tell his story. "I had been using solvents since I
was 10 years old," he says, and explains that his parents brought him to the center
when he was 17. Even though at first he thought only of "how to get out,"
after a time he was able to accept the help offered. He has been drug-free for three
years and is now working at the center. "Of ten people who come in, only two
get completely cured," he says. "I've seen most of them come back-eight
out of ten." In his opinion, many of the men don't make use of the opportunity
to talk about their problems because they are not used to it.
