Dealing with the drug scourge | Daily News

Dealing with the drug scourge

A very strange ‘situation’ was reported in the mainstream media last week where minor workers attached to a leading state hospital are reported to have been engaged in using and selling illicit drugs for a long time, maybe for several years and the latest developments related to this issue.

According to the same news report, those drug addicted minor employees use the artificial drug called ‘ice’ and also sell the same drug inside and outside this state hospital. They have not stopped there. They steal parts of doctors’ vehicles such as side mirrors etc. to sell in order to buy drugs. They have now accelerated their ‘illegal activities’ and steal mobile phones, wallets, other valuables etc. of patients who receive in-house medical treatment in this hospital.

According to the news report published in one of the main Sinhala newspapers two days ago, some of the minor employees who sell drugs in this state hospital come to work in luxury vehicles. It seems no one dares to act or at least talk against these crimes because they are dead scared of drug dealers who are connected to the underworld.

How can such a situation exist in a state hospital for years without any problem? This problem should be solved before drug kingpins kill innocent ordinary people who do not bow down to their ‘ruling’. Now only drug kingpins shoot at each other and kill but soon they will start to kill the ordinary people who protect themselves without allowing them to steal or sell drugs to them.

How are the ordinary people of this country going to live under the constant threat from drug addicts and drug dealers? What will happen if this trend spreads to other state hospitals and other state institutions? Then what about the schools? The school bags of children are checked now before they enter schools but this is not practical in rural areas because drug dealers can pass drugs to schoolchildren during the school time through uncovered fences and by using other ways without being detected.

This is only one indicator of the gravity of the burning issue we face today as a country and society. It is the issue of drug addiction and large scale illicit drug business. By now everyone from schoolchildren in the lower grades to grandparents have run the risk of getting addicted to drugs while a large number of individuals and families are involved in the illicit drug business as their main source of income.

Even travelling alone in public transport, especially in trains and on lonely roads with ordinary stuff like handbags, mobile phones etc. have become very dangerous.

Drug addicts need money, in order to satisfy their habit, and they will do anything no matter what it takes to achieve their dubious ends. This is why they rob, kill and resort to all evil things. They operate in public transport services, on public roads, in schools, in offices, in prisons and now in the state hospitals!.

Enough is enough and the toughest possible action should be taken against drug addicts while eradicating large scale illicit drug business. Nowadays, people in villages and towns have started to talk about drug addiction as something normal and common. This is a very dangerous trend because this scourge is not something similar to alcohol and tobacco addiction. It is different and fatal for others in society.

Certain interested parties and individuals are making very harmful statements these days by describing drug addicts as poor people who starve and steal to feed their children. Unfortunately, the mainstream media (with vested interests) always promote this idea. But in reality, if we take 100 robbers, 99 percent of them are drug addicts and only one percent steal because they do not have money to buy essential commodities.

This bitter truth is not told by the media and always hidden. The media reports only one or two isolated incidents of stealing due to poverty and try their best to make it the ‘general situation’ of this country which is far from the reality. The Government should take immediate action to stop this destructive evil ‘technique’ of some main media.

It is the same with some children who faint and fall during school assemblies. The majority of those schoolchildren are from families with one or more drug addicts. This is the bitter truth that is not exposed by the mainstream or social media and politicians. Only the school teachers who deal with those children on a daily basis know this fact but they are scared to reveal it to anyone because they fear for their lives at the hands of the drug mafia.

At least now the media, politicians and all the others should stop using the country's current situation to hide the reality and make wise decisions. It is time to stop blaming poverty and the Cost of Living for everything. Be careful. There are many other evils around!

 

 


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