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Islandwide survey from December to ascertain drug use

02 Nov 2022

BY Safrah Fazal The National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) has commenced discussions regarding an islandwide survey to be conducted in December on the prevalence of drug use, and is set to write to Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chandana D. Wickramaratne seeking the assistance of the Police in gathering data for the study. A senior official of the NDDCB told The Morning yesterday (1) that the research was still in the planning stage and that data collection will begin by December. “With the help of the Police, we plan to begin data collection by the first week of December at the Grama Niladhari level. It may take around six months to publish the results of the survey.” Speaking to The Morning, NDDCB Preventive Education and Training Division Assistant Director Pradeep Kumara Koholanagedara noted that having received a lot of reports on drug abuse, it was decided to conduct a survey to gather evidence to identify the prevalence of drug use as well as regarding the types of drugs that are most used. Pertaining to the prevalence of drug abuse among schoolchildren, he noted: “Reports of drug use among schoolchildren are mostly received from urban and suburban areas such as Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle, and Kurunegala. Therefore, we will also have our researchers collect evidence on the types of substances that are most popular among the students, whether it is crystal methamphetamine (Ice), heroin, or anything else. Our previous research did not reveal that children used such hard drugs.” “Drug users are a hidden population so we are unable to correctly identify the exact number of people abusing drugs; therefore, we give estimated figures. In 2019, we conducted an islandwide prevalence survey where we gave the following estimations: 100,000 heroin users, 350,000 cannabis users, and 20,000 tablet users (pharmaceuticals and narcotics),” a senior official explained.  


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