One in every 40 Lankans a drug addict

Justice Minister Ali Sabry said, on Tuesday, that one in every 40 people in the country was addicted to narcotic drugs and the government would do everything in its power to remove the scourge of narcotics. “We’ll eradicate the drug menace from this land. We will set up a special task force for that purpose if necessary. As per the statistics there are 553,000 drug addicts in the country. That means above 2.5 per cent of the total population and one per every 40 is a drug addict. This is not a situation we could let further develop.”

Speaking at a ceremony held at Viyangalla in Kalutara, the Minister said: “In 2015, there were 6,600 drug related cases. I checked with the Government Analyst’s Department and law enforcing authorities recently and found that there had been an alarming increase in cases. In 2016 the number exceeded the 8,000 mark; in 2017 it was over 11,000 and in 2018 figure jumped over 12,000. Last year, there were 16,000 cases. Since January this year the number of drug related cases has reached 13,000.