Dr. Yusuf Merchant, is one of India’s leading anti-drug crusaders.

An ex-resident psychiatrist of the Department of Psychiatry, J.J.Group of Hospitals, India, he has been actively involved in research into the use, and abuse of drugs since 1982.

Dr. Merchant is the founder President of Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation & Research Centre, that is actively involved into research of use, misuse and abuse of drugs, since 1983.

D.A.I.R.R.C. is one of India’s leading N.G.O.s, committed to substance abuse prevention strategies, including treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, implementation of drug demand reduction strategies and research in the causes and effects of drug abuse.

Dr.Merchant has authored several books on narcotics, including a 515 pages anthology on Narcotics, published by the Commission of European Communities.

Dr.Merchant’s Rehabilitation Centres are at Mumbai and at Kushivali.

The Centre at Kushivali is situated at the foothills of the picturesque Haji Malang mountain range of the Western ghats. The Centre caters only to a maximum of 28 patients at a time (so that each gets individual attention) and is spread over 60,000 square feet of land.

Dr.Merchant’s Rehab program, is a voluntary treatment program that believes in ‘total abstinence’. The treatment program is based on the principles of Narcotics Anonymous and self help, and comprises of three distinct phases i.e. Motivation, Detoxification and Rehabilitation. DAIRRC has detoxified over 20,000 chemical dependants. Not a single one of them has experienced any ‘cold turkey’.

At Dr.Merchant’s centre, the treatment is highly personalised and has a success rate of over 82 %. Success rate being defined by the following three criteria:-

No intake of any mood or mind altering substance for more than 4 years

No further interaction of the addict with law enforcement agencies.

Gainful employment.

Dr.Merchant has participated in the recovery of Heroin dependants of over 14 years of ‘main lining’, and therefore believes that any addict can give up.

Dr.Merchant is a highly specialized adviser to the ECOSOC of the United Nations, for discussion of the issues of Substance Abuse and HIV/AIDS Prevention, treatment and research from a global and inter-disciplinary angle and contributes his expertise towards the formulation of policy recommendations.