COMMISSIONS: Good Morning Family

GOOD MORNING FAMILY 

Published in Open Society Foundations - Treatment of Torture: Applying International Human Rights Standards to Drug Detention Centers (pg 15, 17). Campaign publication. 

Drug addiction in Cambodia is a relatively new social issue that began around the mid-1990s, when the country was recovering from decades of conflict. What drives Cambodia's drug use are the lack of effective drug rehabilitation programs and the availability of illegal drugs - cheap methamphetamines and the highly potent Burmese heroin.  

Consequently, the government built several drug detention centers in recent years (or re-education centers) to clean the streets of "undesirables," and rehabilitated by exercises, military marches, and re-education classes, called "Good Morning Family," to restore morality. However, in early 2010, human rights groups released reports on abuse on drug addicts at these centers.  

The in-progress story explores issues around addiction in Cambodia, such as poverty and recovery; and understanding their concept of "restoring morality," which, in the western world, particularly in the United States, addiction is otherwise treated as a disease.