Section 31. Compulsory Submission of a Drug Dependent to Treatment and Rehabilitation. —

If a person charged with an offense is found by the fiscal or by the court, at any stage of the proceedings, to be a drug dependent, the fiscal or the court, as the case may be, shall suspend all further proceedings and transmit copies of the record of the case to the Board.

In the event the Board determines, after medical examination, that public interest requires that such drug dependent be committed to a center for treatment and rehabilitation, it shall file a petition for his commitment with the regional trial court of the province or city were he is being investigated or tried: Provided, That where a criminal case is pending in court, such petition shall be filed in the said court. The court shall take judicial notice of the prior proceedings in the case and shall proceed to hear the petition. If the court finds him to be a drug dependent, it shall order his commitment to a center for treatment and rehabilitation. The head of said center shall submit to the court every four months, or as often as the court may require, a written report on the progress of the treatment. If the dependent is rehabilitated, as certified by the center and the Board, he shall be returned to the court which committed him, for his discharge therefrom.

Thereafter, his prosecution for any offense punishable by law shall be instituted or shall continue, as the case may be. In case of conviction, the judgment shall, if the accused is certified by the treatment and rehabilitation center to have maintained good behavior, indicate that he shall be given full credit for the period he was confined in the center: Provided, however, That when the offense is for violation of Section 8 or Section 16 of this Act and the accused is not a recidivist, the penalty thereof shall be deemed to have been served in the center upon his release therefrom after certification by the center and the Board that he is rehabilitated.

The period of prescription of the offense charged shall not run during the time that the respondent or the accused is under detention or confinement in a center.