Not everyone dependent on a drug thinks of themselves as someone who uses drugs. The word conjures back streets, but dependence is just as at home in a bathroom cabinet: painkillers that outlived the injury, sleeping pills that stopped being occasional, sedatives a busy doctor kept renewing. This page covers the whole range, because the body does not care whether a substance came with a prescription.

What we treat

Opioids, including heroin and prescription painkillers such as morphine and codeine. Cocaine. Cannabis. Benzodiazepines and other sedatives. Prescription medicines more broadly, where use has slipped beyond the prescribed. Methamphetamine, other amphetamines, and ecstasy. Khat. Nicotine and tobacco. If your substance is not on that list, call anyway; the list describes the common ground, not the boundary of the conversation.

If your dependence began with a prescription

It deserves saying separately: dependence that grew out of legitimate treatment carries a particular shame — you followed the rules and ended up here — and that shame keeps people from help longer than street-drug stigma does. Prescription dependence is a recognised medical situation, not evidence you misused anything. It is treated here with the same seriousness and the same absence of blame as everything else. One caution: benzodiazepines and some other prescription drugs should never be stopped abruptly after long use; call before you change anything.

On confidentiality, since you’re wondering

We are a treatment centre, not an arm of law enforcement. People walk through our doors and say true things about illegal substances so that they can get well; that is what the doors are for. What you share is confidential — shared beyond your care team only with your consent, where the law requires or permits it, or where safety makes it necessary — and our interest in your drug use begins and ends with treating it.

How treatment runs

Assessment establishes the substance, the pattern, the physical dependence if any, and whatever else is going on — including the mental-health conditions that commonly travel with drug use (Dual Diagnosis). Where the body needs to clear a substance safely, medically supervised detoxification comes first, at our residential centre. Rehabilitation follows: residential treatment of 90 to 180 days for addictions that need that depth, or out-patient care where it fits. Relapse prevention and aftercare complete the structure.

Families

The families section is yours (For Families), and your call can come before theirs. If someone is in immediate danger from an overdose or severe withdrawal, the nearest hospital comes before anything on this website.

A confidential conversation starts it: +256 770 700944.