Colombo: While warning that drug addiction has shown great potential of taking epic proportions, Minister of Justice and Law Reforms Milinda Moragoda stressed the need for an immediate and tangible action plan to curb the drug use in the country, starting from Colombo city.

The Minister said, “We have to control this problem immediately, before it gets out of control, and brings shame to this city as well as the whole country.”

Statistics obtained from the National Dangerous Drug Control Board indicate that there are 37,542 drug users in Sri Lanka. Out of that, 24,662 drug users are from the Western Province. What is alarming is that 17,408 of the drug users, who amount to almost 50% of the total drug users in the country, are from the city of Colombo.

The minister explained that under these circumstances there is a very good chance that drug usage might reach epidemic proportions, if immediate steps are not taken to counter the menace, especially in the city of Colombo. Minister Moragoda added that when he visited low-income areas around Colombo, many parents as well as young people had appealed to him and asked him to do something about the spread of drugs in their neighborhoods.

Since taking over the Ministry of Justice, Minister Moragoda had taken initiatives to build drug rehabilitation centres in Pallekele and Weerawila, for the drug addicts in the prison system. “We need an urgent national initiative to fight drugs. It needs to be a combination of law enforcement, tough penalties for drug traffickers and improved rehabilitation programmes,” said Moragoda.

Another significant statistic is that the total number of women using drugs in the Western Province is just 662, which is just 2% of the total number of drug users in the province.