The most significant drug-related problem in the country is the trafficking of heroin from India, claimed Samagi Jana Balawegaya Opposition Parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne.
It is debated that some powerful politicians are behind it and involved in drug trafficking which has handicapped drug control, claimed Wickramaratne further.
“Sri Lanka has actually become a transshipment centre for narcotics. In 2005, the United Nations (UN) South Asian regional profile report said that for the past decades, Sri Lanka has been used as the transshipment point for heroin from South-West Asia, India and other destinations outside the Subcontinent. The reports of the UN prove that Sri Lanka has not only become a drug transshipping centre but also a final destination and transit point for drugs,” he claimed during the debate on the Regulations issued under the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance in Parliament on Monday (22).
Wickramaratne also pointed out that while there are 5,000 drug-related inmates at the Welikada Prison complex, the available facilities are only sufficient for 800 inmates.