"Sunshine Project”: Fundamental Solution for Drug Rehabilitation and Innovation Measure for Social Governance (2)

The essence of the "Sunshine Project" for community-based drug rehabilitation and recovery in Guizhou is to seek a fundamental solution for consolidating the results of compulsory physical rehabilitation starting from psychology and society, which fully reflects modern civilization and advanced governance concept. The "Sunshine Project" regards drug addicts not only as victimizers of the family and society, but also as victims of drugs, who fall into the predicament of drug abuse due to defective family and social life; regards drug rehabilitation centers not only as the tool to punish lawbreakers and criminals harming the society, but also as the place to treat psychological and physiological patients to help them get employed, build the confidence for life, obtain group warmth, find their own positions in society, and return to the society. These represent progressive concepts, and accord with the concept of modern civilization. The “Sunshine Project” reflects and practices these concepts, and is an advanced undertaking, which is not only important for domestic social governance to promote drug control and rehabilitation, but also important to showcase China’s progress and advancement made in law governance and human rights to the international society. It is of great significance of leading the successful exploration on the global problem of consolidating drug rehabilitation results in the international community. Facts have proven that the "Sunshine Project" has achieved very good effects. Among the compulsory drug rehabilitation personnel working in the placement centers of the "Sunshine Project," the relapse rate within 2 years has been reduced to single digit, showing great achievements and representing a fundamental solution for drug rehabilitation.

"Sunshine Project" is an integral part of the social governance system in Guizhou.

The "Sunshine Project" is an important social governance project, and has made remarkable achievements. The birth of this project in Guizhou is not accidental. Guizhou carries out a series of social governance and innovation projects, and these projects reflect the working spirit of Guizhou to build a party serving the interests of the people, govern for the public, and vigorously promote scientific development. The “Sunshine Project” is an integral part of the social governance system in Guizhou. Its birth and continuous promotion enjoy solid ideological, cadre, and mass basis. For example, during the large-scale group conflict in Weng’an in 2008, the public security authorities found that dozens of middle-school minors used violence and caused certain public property losses. The politics and law authorities in Guizhou carefully analyzed the characteristics of such a group, the reason why they participated in the conflict, and the possible long-term influences on them by taking different measures, and then decided to deal with these minors mainly by guiding and helping, rather than punishing them. After making these minors realize their own mistakes, the authorities eliminated their misdemeanor records, and disburdened these minors, enabling them to receive normal education and enrollment, and even participate in the country’s political life. Such a measure saved a batch of minors and their families, and benefited social stability. It is a measure caring for the public and putting people first. For another example, many localities in Guizhou have maintained simple governance style. The buildings of some local governments are far simpler than schools, hospitals, hotels, and business buildings. This is not because the local government does not have the financial ability to build bright and luxurious buildings, but because local Party committees and governments have spent the funding on the vigorous development of people’s well-being, truly implementing and practicing the governance concept of building a party serving the interests of the people. Therefore, the “Sunshine Project” is not only a drug rehabilitation and recovery task, and its concept is also reflected in all aspects of social governance in Guizhou. All the work shows that the concepts of building a party serving the interests of the people, governing for the people, and promoting scientific development have been implemented and promoted in the social governance process in a comprehensive and systematic manner.