A meeting to discuss action to address the drug menace in the country with all major stakeholders was held yesterday.
Public Security Minister Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekara, Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa and Community Police State Minister Dilum Amunugama focused on creating a society free from fear and suspicion and five factors have been identified where drugs has been identified as the main factor that needs to be addressed.
In order to rid the country of drugs, measures should be taken to prevent drugs from entering the country, reduce the demand for drugs and remand those addicted to drugs. However, numerous measures have already been taken to prevent drugs from entering the country and to reduce the demand for drugs.
During yesterday’s meeting, special focus was on the rehabilitation of these drug addicts instead of remanding them and putting them through a rehabilitation programme. During the rehabilitation programme, these drug addicts would be given vocational training and trained to be productive citizens.
The need for rehabilitation has been identified as an urgent need due to the fact that the majority of these minor drug offenders who are imprisoned eventually leave prison as hardened criminals and around 40% of those involved in criminal activities have been found to be drug users.
At this meeting an expected project plan was presented, where it was suggested that those who need to be rehabilitated should be categorized as, those to be imprisoned, to be reintegrated and other inmates required to be rehabilitated. Many ideas were discussed during this meeting pertaining to vocational training, reintegration and follow-up.
An executive and management committee was proposed to be appointed for the plan, comprising representatives of relevant Ministries, Departments and various Institutions.
Discussions were also held on identifying locations for these activities, treatment courses, vocational training, security, reintegration and follow-up. In addition, it was also discussed no how to protect the privacy of those undergoing this programme and how they should be categorised into two major groups requiring long-term and short-term treatment.
The Sports Minister gave an assurance to locate suitable locations for the establishment of such premises and it was also proposed to expedite the training of instructors.
