President Maithripala Sirisena has directed the Authority to Rehabilitate Drug Addicts to initiate a special provincial-scale programme for rehabilitation of persons addicted to narcotics, Presidential Secretariat sources said yesterday.
The President’s move to introduce a drug rehabilitation programme at provincial level comes in the wake of the results of an island-wide drug abuse survey research project carried out jointly by the Presidential Task Force on Drugs, the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board and the police, sources said.
The report of the drug abuse survey and research project was handed over to President Maithripala Sirisena, recently.
The survey revealed that over 115,000 youth across the country aged 18 and under are addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, and a number of illegal drugs such as heroin and cannabis. The number of heroin addicts among them is 6,100.
The survey disclosed that over 100,000 persons seek out heroin everyday, and among them are around 1,500 women.
The survey reflected that cannabis remains by far the most commonly used illicit drug, with over 300,000 users among them, of which 1,500 are women. The survey demonstrated that the largest number of drug addicts were from the Western Province.
The Southern, Wayamba, Central and Northern provinces, too, recorded high numbers of abusers. Sources said the President directed officials of the Authority to Rehabilitate Drug Addicts to introduce special rehab programmes to treat the affected.
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