Siberian Rehab Clinic Uses Handcuffs to Get Their Point Across
ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: It's a hard-line treatment for hardcore drug addicts and though those participating in the program are not exiled in Siberia, they might as well be. CNN's Steve Harrigan looks at an unusual method of rehab that's the result of desperation, disillusionment and a little bit of disgust.</s>STEVE HARRIGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a Siberian clinic, where you can eat lunch, have a smoke, or read the Bible, all with one hand. That's because the other hand is chained to a bed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The only time they unlock us is to go to the bathroom.</s>HARRIGAN: The handcuffs are to prevent Pavel (ph) or any of the 20 other young men from taking heroin. Roman's (ph) last high came six days ago, just before his father brought him to the free clinic.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I haven't slept in six days. Anyone who's addicted knows what it's like, sweat, first hot then cold, pain in the legs, the craving.</s>HARRIGAN: But there is little sympathy for the addicts, not even from their own mothers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If they beat him they are right to beat him, he needs to be beaten to be turned into a human being.</s>HARRIGAN: All the families have tried traditional rehab programs at hospitals and failed. The handcuffs, they say, are a last resort.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I tried to do my best to have my son alive.</s>HARRIGAN: The clinic was founded by three Yekaterinburg businessmen, not to make money, they say, but to clean up their hometown.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Unlike any other country in the world, we are solving the drug problem.</s>HARRIGAN: In a city known for its powerful Mafia gangs, the businessmen are solving the problem in their own way. Yvegeny Roitzman (ph), jewelry salesman and clinic founder, explains.</s>YVEGENY ROITZMAN, CLINIC FOUNDER (through translator): There used to be thousands of drug dealers in this neighborhood. People were afraid to leave their house. So we got 500 strong guys in expensive cars and blocked it off. There were raids, beatings. We made them terrified to sell drugs here. We didn't ask anyone. We just did it.</s>HARRIGAN: They didn't ask anyone how to treat drug addiction, either. For that, they drew on their own experience behind bars.</s>ROITZMAN: Handcuffs are the only thing that works. They make you think about your mistakes.</s>HARRIGAN: He should know: all three of the clinic's founders are convicted criminals. Steve Harrigan, CNN, Moscow.