KATHMANDU (UCAN) -- Sanjan Thapa Magar blames his desire to be "grown-up" for fueling his hashish addiction, beginning at age 13. Six years later, he just wants a fresh start in life.

"I was 13 when I started having this feeling that I was already grown up," Magar, a Kathmandu resident, told UCA News on April 23. "This was when I started drinking and using drugs."

His mother eventually took him to Freedom Center, a Jesuit-run rehabilitation facility for alcoholics and drug abusers in Nakhipot, southern Kathmandu, where he spent a year.

"After I recovered and went home, I resumed smoking hashish," he recounted. And that brought him back to Freedom Center last December. Now, five months later, he feels he has "gained enough confidence to start a new life after I fully recover here."

The center's beginnings go back to 1976, when the late Jesuit Father Thomas Gafney started helping drug addicts through a detoxification program. In 1983, Father Gafney and Rajendra Shrestha started a rehabilitation center in a rented house, and by 2000 they had their own building that could accommodate 27 residents.

Seven staff members currently look after Magar and 16 other men with drug-related problems. The residents, none of them Christians, are aged between 19 and 45. The drugs they got hooked on range from hashish and the sedative diazepam, to "brown sugar" (heroin) and morphine, which are injected. All of these are easily available from dealers in Kathmandu, according to Magar.

Rakesh Bhattachan, a former resident now serving on the staff, told UCA News, "As I have gone through the drug experience myself, I feel glad I am being of help to these men who are desperately trying to come out of the mess they are in."

Bhattachan believes Nepalese society has made matters worse. "Steeped in an age-old tradition" of neglecting young people who get caught up in drugs, he said, "society looks upon these people with disdain." But he added, "This attitude of our society is gradually changing."

According to Shrestha, treatment at Freedom Center starts with 10-12 days of acupuncture, after which psychological rehabilitation begins. He pointed out that residents do all the housework and also work on the farm next to the center, where they grow seasonal vegetables.

As part of the program, they regularly practice yoga, meditation, relaxation and tai chi techniques, play sports, work out at a gym and organize cultural and recreational activities for themselves.

The center also conducts a weekly meeting at which parents are updated on the progress their sons are making. Former residents come once a month to share with those undergoing treatment.

Shrestha estimates up to 30 percent of discharged residents re-enter the program after going back to drugs once they are unsupervised. The minimum duration for treatment is three months, but there is no limit as to how long an individual can stay. It depends on his progress.

The rehabilitation program costs 6,000 rupees (US$90) a month, but some who cannot afford stay free of charge, according to Jesuit Father Norbert D'Souza, the center's director.

Twenty-year-old Sanjeeb Maharjan (name changed on request) told UCA News that he and the other residents have new hope of going back to society and living a "normal" life. "Personally, I feel that I will have more options in life after I go back home from here," he said.

"I always used to have money problems and, of course, problems with parents. But now I hope my parents can understand me as I try to live a normal healthy life," said Maharjan, from Kathmandu.

"I have a lot of friends who are into drugs and in trouble right now. I will go back from here and tell them how good this center is and how it helps people like us," he continued. "One has to make sacrifices to get something, and I have sacrificed the pleasure of drugs to get myself a new life."

Local media quoting government sources report more than 150,000 drug addicts in the country, with the number increasing 10-15 percent annually.

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