Question: My child under 18 years old is addicted to drugs, is he eligible to be sent to a drug rehabilitation facility?
Tran Phuc(Thanh Mien)
Reply:Article 33 of the 2021 Law on Drug Prevention and Control stipulates that drug addicts from 12 to under 18 years old shall be sent to compulsory drug addiction treatment facilities in one of the following cases: Not registering, not implementing or voluntarily terminating voluntary drug addiction treatment; during the period of voluntary drug addiction treatment, being discovered illegally using drugs; drug addicts of opium-like substances not registering, not implementing or voluntarily terminating opium-like substance addiction treatment with replacement drugs or having their opium-like substance addiction treatment with replacement drugs terminated due to violating regulations on addiction treatment.
Drug addicts from 12 to under 18 years old who are sent to compulsory drug rehabilitation facilities are responsible for: Complying with regulations on compulsory drug rehabilitation, rules and regulations and being subject to management, education and treatment of compulsory drug rehabilitation facilities; participating in treatment, medical treatment, education, counseling, cultural studies, vocational training, labor therapy and behavioral and personality rehabilitation activities.
The compulsory drug addiction treatment period for drug addicts from 12 years old to under 18 years old is from 6 to 12 months.
Sending drug addicts from 12 to under 18 years old to compulsory drug rehabilitation facilities is decided by the District People's Court and is not an administrative measure.
The Standing Committee of the National Assembly prescribes the procedures for the People's Court to consider and decide on sending drug addicts from 12 to under 18 years old to compulsory drug rehabilitation facilities.
Thus, drug addicts under 18 years of age will be sent to compulsory drug rehabilitation facilities when they fall into one of the cases in Clause 1 above and will be decided by the District People's Court.
ST