Monday, 17 February 2014 00:00
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Some reports need to be seen to be believed. Officials of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have urged the Sri Lankan Government to introduce new laws to punish offenders apprehended in drug trafficking at sea. This is a rather massive ask given that in Sri Lanka, imports of grease and bathroom fittings morph into heroin and official records show 53,000 people have been arrested for drug offences this year.
The new suggestions was reportedly presented to Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem and Sri Lanka was urged to follow measures taken by Seychelles to prosecute criminals but this is a gargantuan task given the power of the drug trade in Sri Lanka and the congestion in Sri Lanka’s court system.
The UN officials no doubt believe that roping Sri Lanka into fighting drugs will be a better deterrent than nothing at all, which is the case now. Yet it is evident that despite repeated appeals and promises to eradicate the drug menace, there is increasing evidence that drug trafficking and politics are closely linked.
A case in point of course is the involvement of Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne’s Secretary and what appears to be a support from local politicians. It is still unclear whether the Police have interrogated the unnamed businessmen who imported the container. Moreover, Police have recorded a staggering increase of hard drugs, from just 15 kg in 2012 to 300 kg in 2013, showing a deeply-embedded and powerful support system for smuggling.
According to Government statistics, 78% of imprisonments in 2011 were of drug users. The number of imprisonments due to drug addiction reached 10,568 in 2011 while 6,165 persons had been imprisoned due to the same offence for the second time and 2,073 for more than two occasions. Police have noted that in the first six months of 2012, over 19,000 people suspected of drug possession were arrested. The Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) has been placed on alert that Sri Lanka is being used as a transit point for smuggling hard drugs to other countries.
It was reported in 2012 February that special teams have been deployed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to detect the attempts. According to recent information, Sri Lanka has also been used as a transit point involving other countries such as Brazil, Peru, Thailand and Nigeria. The PNB should not be surprised as drug trafficking via Sri Lanka has been a major point of concern for many years.
Drug addiction is a grave problem for the public. It is no secret that the drug trade often receives powerful political patronage and given the longevity of trafficking in Sri Lanka, it can be supposed that the support has also extended over many long years.
Taking tough and holistic action against these offenders is the only way to mitigate this horrific problem. It is clear from the latest statistics that Sri Lanka needs to step up its vigilance though awareness, better legal action and tougher punishment for the drug lords in the country. The UN officials were told that enacting new laws as they requested would require a “policy decision” by the Government. One would think that fighting drugs is such an obvious point for any State it would be termed as a no brainer.
