REND" Sunday, November 6, 1983

DEADLY HEROIN
Cl"51fiMT REPLACES G~NJA~
The presence of heroin in rests as well as the quantities
Sri Lanka was unknown till seized has been noted in 1982.
What all experts said i 1981 but It has emerged as the
biggest (hreat in rect:nt tilnes,
However domestic consu rnptron
appears to be increasing due
a sen.ior official of the Nare<>- both its availability and more
In June, 1980, on a request made by the Sri Lankan tlcs Bureau told Insight. so because it is relatively in·
government, the Colombo Plan Bureau got down the l)t. expensive - it is cheaper than
rector of the National Drug Dependence Research Centre The arrest of four pushers in tobacco.
Mala.ysiai-Dr. V. Navaratnam to conduc.t a "syste'lll.at.ic 1981, 27 in 1982 and 70 in
field inv('Stlgation to drtermine the extent of drug abuse 1983 representc; a rapid in. The · gaining popularity in
as WPll as to cvaluatr current activities relating to the crease in the availability of' the heroin is also reflected in the
control or. the problem". deadly narcotic here. This cons- fact that the reported seizures
titutes only four per cent of of opium have declined. Ile
t.he actual number of pushers says that the greatest impact
'rhe 'report made by Dr. Navaratnam starts off thus- he said. on the local drug scene has
"thPre is currently controversy within Sri Lanka in re. been caused within the past
gard to the seriousness of dru g abuse in the countrY. Tqerc is much concern among three years with the involvP-
One g~oup believes that the problem is extremely mini- educators, ' responsible parents, mcnt of experienced, affluent
mal with no effects on the country in general while the medi.cal personnel and sociolo· groups in the illicit import of
other adopt the view that there exists a growing pro. gists that there has been a sig- heroin.
blem". nificant increase in drug abuse
At that time Dr. Navaratnam noted that present Jaws problems in Sri Lanka, however He felt that while law en·
were totally inadequate and did not serve as an adequate there is a Jack of co-ordination forcPment needed beefing up
deterrent for drug trafficking. He recommended that a between allied institutions to the biggest prohlem w<is the
new art-the Dangerous Drugs Act be enacted. That effectively fight the problem. complete ::ihsence of treatment
was htree years ago. and rchahi litation centres for
Although cannahis and to a · addicts. "What arc we to do
lesser extent :.ashish continue with the addicts we arrest'? -
to be the most-widely atlused we fine them and they go back
drugs, heroin addiction was the to the streets to hecome push-
cause for most concern. The ers - we throw them in jail 1,
I
Drug abuse Deathl steady inflow of this "hard'' and they rot" .
narcotic has hl"Come a matter of
priority for the Jaw enforcement Addicts arc prcs<>ntly treated
agencies. .at the hospitals and psychiatric

in. Asia pie n:altyi for. f

Rf'garding cannabis a
rcase in
WW..,....-::"'~&W
dee- clinics and this is totally inade·
the number of ar· quate, he stressed.
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Lanka appears tO be sur.

rounded by a sea of drug ad·
ditcs going by the number of
confirmed narcotic takers in
A sia. The general consensus among
It is r eported that Iran has laY1 enforcers is that
around a million addicts, over much tougher laws are npces-
half of whom · are heroin 11scrs. sary tu deal with the Problem.
Pakistan 40,000 to 50,000 and
Thailand 300,000 heroin :.id- Customs Chief H. B. Dissana.
dirts \Yhich has been a problem vake savs that harder the law
to th:it government for the p;1i:-t the easier it would be to tackle
s e\"cral Year:- ·while there has the problem.
bcPn a reporied increase Of ad·
diets in Indonesia, in Malaysia l\fr. Dissanayake cites exam·
there are well over a lakh of ples like Singapore and Malay• .
heroin usi>rs and 8.000 to sia where the death penalty
serves as a deterrent. He says J l!
I0.000 in Burma.
India however, denies that that if the death penalty cannot
thP\' hnrP a dru~ problem,
while all the time. they produce
11-vcr 2,500 tons of opium an.
he enforcc•d at least a manda-
tory prison sentence of not Jess
than ten years should be im·
.
I'.
nually, a fair percent:Jgc of Posed on those convicted
which is. ronuggJod to Lanka not
so muclf'for sale but in transit
to other countries .
Fewer cletcc1irin~ ~
· indicate. that
' tggl'fri •
bcco ore ~ophiSficate
y m the north of
country_ -
'J'h . }~4ID)d)lQ!iOn
p1um sl'lll~ ­
wide. particul-arl.y in we~t ancr
South East Asia. Thus heroin He subst<intfates his statement
manufactures have a steady with the contention that the
flow of the 'raw matf!- Customs have still not detected
rial" to t>roduce fhP. deadly :my locally made heroin going
11::n·c-ot ics. uut of the country.

Schoc:l principals
speak oiut
Royal College £'1111cipal C. M. Fernando agrees that llero!D
ts b<~l!lg used by sehool children,
Taking it in a <:!ear perceptive. Mr. Fernando says expuL
sion wuulll be the last resort.
"We will have lo try our best to re.hab11itate
who is using addictive drugs. It is only if this fa"ll1.,;.,~a5""'s;.~uCti
a student weuJd be expelled fTom school" he e--;:pJa1necl.
He criticised the <iuthoritic~, especially the Police, for not
taking ·proper action to prevent it
He says that areas around the schools, the To~:n hall all.<1
the Eye Hospital junction a1e wclJ known places where drugs
are peddled IJut the Police had nol taken any preventive action
in these areas,
Ananda College Principal Co\. A. Kudaligama said that so
fit• there had been no detcetion of heroin addicts in his college.
Col. Kudaligama also agrees with the Principal of Royal -·
on rf'ha'))i1itation
"First we have to try to rehabili.tatc the student if we ex.
p_el him we will only be transfcn·ing the problem to the so-
ciety."
. Shanthi Peiris, Principal of Methodist College, says tnat the
girls are more aware of the consequences than the boys so
they are not usua!ly influtmced liy friends.
''It is only the girls who are ' having Personal and mental
prohJems who are easily Jed to experiment and get addictc<t
,to drugs .. Vf e J~avc. taken certain measure . The. problem · of
dru g add1ct1on is discussed in upper <·lasses,'• she said·
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VOCATIONAL REHABILITA TIO.N
""~Mt.anel•viton' td.hee SD. rRu~ra,!edS1vsa1·.,:.r 3.!1•s-( every sin_gle addict identified
~ ·~ • ,, '"' .,., 10 others go undetected. ·
the CoJomb-0 Plan told Insight Speaking on the rehabi!Ha-
•bcroin addiction In Sri J,aaka tion of drug addi<..1s Mr Bora.
had reach~d ·•alarming pro110r· Jessa said psychoJogicai" and
tfon." physkul therapy were not suf.
' 'Strangely, in other coun- ficient in themselves. An im.
trirs, the heroin problems be. Portant aspPct in the trcatm<'nt
gan in citit!s and sr>rcad to the or a drug addict was voi;ational
:;uburhs. 'f.!ut in Sri Lanka, it rehabilitation, which provid<'d
happened in reverse. with I.he him with the oPportunity 10
Problem o~iginating in rural reinteg-rat~! himself in socief:Y.
areas ahd spreadina to the In· Singapore, drug addicts go
<:itie_s. Thui can he explained by to work from the rehabilitation
tracing the main SOUi:<:ti of the , centres. Such opportunities go
rlrug, the tourists, who sp<>nd a _Jong way in elfmin:i_ting the
most of their time out of t11c causes which hring about adrlic·
cities." he added_ tion,'' Mr. Boralcssa said. "l',e·
A point Which should be Rislation alone is not sufficient·
taken into consideration is that there must be a total commit:
according to the World Health ment to fi ght against the prob.
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