Shafaq News
The man in the ward does not look like someone undersentence. His day begins with exercise, then classes and vocational training,before he returns at night to a room with no bars on the door, in a buildingwhere no one is watching to make sure he does not leave.
Not long ago, someone in his position would have ended up inan overcrowded cell, sharing space with dealers and leaving with more contactsthan when he entered. A senior officer in Basra, separate from the officialscited later in this report, described the dynamic bluntly when he told ShafaqNews that prison turned users into dealers.
Iraq has begun shifting its approach to drug addiction bydirecting users into rehabilitation centers instead of prison, expanding asystem that has already handled about 8,000 cases nationwide. At the Al-RusafaRehabilitation Center in Baghdad, that shift is visible on the ground, even ifits outcome remains uncertain.
Law and Rollout
The change is rooted in Article 32 of Iraq's Drug andPsychotropic Substances Law No. 50 of 2017, which allows courts to replaceprison sentences with placement in rehabilitation centers. For years, theprovision existed largely on paper, as the country lacked the capacity toenforce it. That gap has narrowed. The Interior Ministry's General Directoratefor Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances has established 16 rehabilitationcenters across Iraq —three in Baghdad and the rest distributed across the provinces.
Brigadier General Ziyad Al-Qaisi, a senior official at thedirectorate, told Shafaq News the shift reflects lessons learned from years ofenforcement. Treating users and traffickers as a single category, he said,often produced repeat offenders and in some cases fed the same networksauthorities were trying to dismantle. “The alternative is to treat users aspatients, particularly those drawn into addiction through social pressure andunstable economic conditions.”
More than 6,800 people have completed treatment and returnedto their communities, while roughly 1,200 remain in care, according toAl-Qaisi.
At Al-Rusafa, treatment follows a structured model developedjointly by the ministries of Interior and Health, known internally as the"four-plus-one" program. Dr. Mohammed Abdul Karim, the center'sphysician, described a progression from detoxification through psychologicalsupport, physical rehabilitation, and vocational training. The fifth stagecontinues after discharge, with trades such as carpentry, tailoring, andmetalwork offered to address a gap that medical care alone cannot fill.
The man who lost his government job is in the final weeks ofthat program. He speaks about returning to work, rebuilding his routine, andavoiding the same circles that led him into addiction, aware that those circleshave not disappeared, but that what has changed is his distance from them.
After leaving the center, former residents remain in contactwith community police units under a framework described as "halfwayhouses," a model in which former residents remain under light supervisionwhile reintegrating into their communities, aimed at reducing relapse. Thesystem remains limited in reach but marks a clear break from earlierapproaches, where intervention ended at the prison gate.
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Supply and Circumstance
A second resident, who arrived by court order six monthsearlier, described his path more simply: unemployment, environment, and thepull of friends. He speaks about recovery with caution and without definingwhat comes next.
Youth unemployment in Iraq is about 32 percent, according toWorld Bank data from 2025, limiting options for those leaving structuredprograms. In Basra, appellate court figures show that around 90 percent ofarrested drug offenders were unemployed at the time of their arrest.
Psychotherapist Ahmed Mohammed Shaker links the problem todeeper disruptions in Iraq's social fabric after 2003, weakened familystructures, and prolonged instability that left many without consistent supportsystems. Addiction, in his framing, emerges less as an isolated choice and moreas a condition shaped by environment.
Supply meanwhile remains active. The United Nations Officeon Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes Iraq as both a growing consumption marketand an emerging production point. Authorities seized more than 4.1 tons ofCaptagon —a synthetic amphetamine widely trafficked across the Middle East— in2023 alone, while investigations uncovered a production laboratory inAl-Muthanna province and suspected sites near several northern cities.
Trafficking routes run through three main corridors: thenorth through the Kurdistan Region, the west through Al-Anbar and the Syrianborder, and the south through Basra. Those routes are sustained, according tothe UNODC, by weak border control and, in some alleged cases, by armed groupswith commercial interests in the trade.
The Open Question
Rehabilitation centers address individuals who enter thesystem, but they do not dismantle supply networks or eliminate the economicpressures that make addiction more likely. Inas Karim, head of the civilsociety organization A Drug Free Iraq, has warned that stigma and fear of legalconsequences still prevent many families from seeking help, leaving asignificant share of cases outside formal treatment entirely. Data shows thenumber of Iraqis receiving treatment for drug use disorders more than doubled between2017 and 2021 —a figure that exposes rising demand as much as it reflectsexpanding capacity.
Iraq's rehabilitation system marks a clear shift, replacingincarceration with treatment and offering a path that did not previously exist. Centers function, and people return to their communities. What thosecommunities offer in return remains the open question.
Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.
