Heroin flooding the Maldives

Looking down from the airplane window, the island nation off the coast of India looks idyllic. But don’t let the pristine beaches and turquoise sea fool you. The Maldives have a dark side to them that not many visiting honeymooners get to see.
Most of the tourists that arrive at Ibrahim Nasir International airport take a direct boat or private plane to their resort. But to see the other side of the Maldives, all they need to do is take a ten minute boat trip to the country's capital, Male.
If the heat allows, you can take a walk around the island in less than an hour. However most locals prefer to use a scooter to get round the island, which is packed with high-rise buildings. Cars only worsen the congestion.
Tourists understandably opt for the luxurious resorts for a relaxing holiday.  Male has very little to offer them.
Brown sugar
Even for the locals, the Maldivian capital has few recreational activities to offer. Out of sheer boredom a lot of them resort to drugs. Heroin, or brown sugar as it’s referred to locally, is their drug of choice.
According to a UN report, 40 percent of people under the age of 30 use heroin. Once addicted, the tightly-knit community and scarce rehabilitation facilities make it very difficult to beat the addiction.
Although cannabis has been around for centuries, heroin was first introduced to the Maldives in the 1970s, when it was imported by Sri Lankan labourers.
People knew nothing of the drug and its effects. So when dealers looking for steady customers started handing it out for free, Maldivians got hooked easily.
There are now an estimated 30,000 addicts in the Maldives. In densely-populated Male there is an addict in almost every family.
Heroin, like the water and idyllic beaches, can be found anywhere in the archipelago.
Staying clean
Until recently Shiuna Khaleel was a heroin addict “I couldn’t do anything without drugs. I couldn’t wake up, couldn’t have breakfast without vomiting. I had to get high first, that’s how it controlled me”

It was her boyfriend that first introduced her to drugs. Against her parents' wishes she married him a few years later. Their relationship revolved around getting high.
“My life would have turned out very differently if I had known about the effects of heroin. But the knowledge wasn’t there in the community at that time,” Says Shiuna now.
The lack of knowledge is still the main reason why so many youngsters get addicted in the Maldives. Parents live in denial or don’t know how to recognize the signs of addiction. 
“Recently we are seeing that very young kids, as young as 12 or 13, are peddling heroin in the streets,” says Azmy Achmed.
He is the programme coordinator of Journey, an NGO founded by former addicts to reach out to other recovering or active users.
Though the group of under aged users is growing, they're hard to reach for Achmed’s NGO. According to the country's strict Islamic laws, children under 18 can’t receive education on sexual health issues or drug use. 
“Religious scholars don’t believe we should talk to them about these issues, their minds are closed. That’s why we have to adapt our strategies and reach out to the parents instead,” says Azmy Achmed.
Rehabilitation and relapse
Despite the large number of addicts on the islands, there is only one rehab facility in the Maldives. And like many things here, it has its own island.
After a gruelling rehab programme, ex-addicts are sent back to Male without any aftercare. Back home it’s almost impossible to stay away from friends and creditors from their time as an addict.  This makes staying clean extremely difficult.
“I myself have relapsed eight times,” says Azmy with a faint smile. And he is no exception.
“If you just go out to get groceries you’ll bump into an old friend who will offer you drugs. You have to be very strong to stay clean here”
After ending her marriage to her addicted husband, Shiuna too went through the painful cycle of rehabilitation and relapse. It took her ten attempts, but now she’s successfully taking part in Journey’s methadone programme.
“I was 33 years old, had no husband and couldn’t take care of my own two children. I was done with feeling like a failure,” she says.
Shiuna has started working as a counsellor for Journey’s outreach programme. She walks through Male’s neighbourhoods daily, looking for active addicts. She talks to them, trying to convince them to get treatment.
“Most of them know me from the time that I was using. They respect me because they see I have been able to turn my life around,” Shiuna explains.
Second chance
The political unrest that has held the Maldives in its grip since the beginning of this year has caused some uncertainties surrounding drug policies.
During Maumoon Gayoom’s autocratic regime, heroin users caught with more than a gram were charged for drug dealing. It’s a crime punishable with a 25-year jail sentence.
Research conducted by Journey shows that the average user easily carries a gram for personal consumption.
When Mohamed Nasheed came in to power in 2008 during the country's first free elections, the Second Chance programme was established. It tried to rehabilitate young people that were in jail caught with less than three grams of drugs.
Parliament passed a bill that reduces jail terms for drug use, and devotes more funds to rehabilitation efforts. A National Drug Control Council was put in place and a court designed for drug related offences.
But since Nasheed’s government was ousted during a coup in February, it remains unclear what will happen to those policies.
“Journey has no political preference," says Azmy Achmed. “We try to cooperate with any party. Because in the end, drug addiction in the Maldives concerns everyone.”