China treats drug users by putting them in compulsory camps, jail-like facilities that have long hours of exercise and education. Western-style treatment programs, where users live in "a therapeutic community" and are free to come and go, are unheard of--with one exception: Daytop in Kunming. At Daytop, residents work their way up through a hierarchy of jobs, one of which is cutting hair. Our translator, Ding Yimin of Xinhua News Agency, had never met heroin users before, and I asked her how they differed from what she had imagined. "They're ordinary," Yimin said. |
