In kinda-funny-til-you-really-think-about-it (then-it-gets-really-sad) news, a young Asian elephant, Xiguang, has recently returned home to China after undergoing three years of drug rehab.

Yes, this is for real.

Xiguang became addicted to heroin during a stint laboring for smugglers along the China-Burma border, the AP reports. After a lengthy course of methadone treatments, he has apparently fully recovered.

I’d really like to make a crack about Just Saying No at this point, but for some reason Xiguang’s story touched me, and I don’t have the jokes in me.

Maybe that’s because elephants are such amazing, dignified, graceful creatures; I have trouble understanding how someone could abuse them this way.

Welcome home, Xiguang, and stay clean.

Eva Holland

Eva Holland is co-editor of Matador Pulse and a regular contributor to the Matador Network. She's also a contributing editor at World Hum. Eva recently quit her day job and gave notice on her apartment, and is currently bouncing around Eastern Ontario, Quebec and upstate New York.