Alessandro Digaetano Photographer

The Kunming detoxification centre. New arrival sitting and learning the rules of the centre...The addicts arrived into the centre take six-month abstinence programme to kick the habit and to get off drugs. Follow six-month working programme in the field or in handcraft for woman...There is also a voluntary side where people come and pay to stay there. They do not work at all, of course...Around 2,000 drug addicts are given both physical and mental treatment in the Kunming Detoxic Centre to quit drugs. Zhang Yuzu, the centre's director and one of its founders, said it is run by 260 people, including doctors, police officers and other skilled staff. ..ìThe addicts come from all over the country, with 40 per cent of them locals from Yunnan Province," he said. ..Established in 1989, the Kunming Mandatory Drug Rehabilitation Centre is the largest of its kind in Asia and can handle more than 5.000 addicts at a time. ..Among them, 5 per cent have stayed off drugs at least for one year after leaving the centre. There is still a long way to go...A medicine now used in the centre could greatly relieve the pain and it has proved effective in helping addicts break their drug addiction. The medicine, called the 6.26 Drug-abstinence Capsule, is a kind of herb medicine developed in 1993 by the centre's researchers. ..The regular daily schedule includes time for activities such as listening to lectures on the harm of drugs, doing physical exercise, learning skills such as cutting hair and repairing machines. ..