• Notes school children’s lack of knowledge/low awareness of external community and parental support 

The National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) claimed that the use of dangerous drugs such as heroin among school children in Sri Lanka has mainly been encouraged by the behaviour of the community.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (17), the NDDCB Chairman Shakya Nanayakkara said that the lack of knowledge and understanding about the community and parental support have made children more vulnerable in this situation. He also said that the NDDCB has made different approaches from one community to another to address the determinants identified by the various line institutions including the NDDCB. He added that it is the responsibility of the internal community – family or relatives - to make those children aware of the danger, which he opined, could be a successful approach in creating a strong mindset within the child to resist external factors such as drug addicts, television commercials, etc.

He also added that many schools in urban areas have become an oasis for drug dealers because of the persisting loopholes in law enforcement and the education system. However, he said that there is no general condition in the use of dangerous drugs within the school system, but that some isolated incidents have been identified in the past few months. He also said that they have identified ‘cannabis' as the main type of drug found in schools.

Media reports which quoted the Police Narcotics Bureau statistics show that an estimated 500,000 are addicted to various types of drugs and that 75% of them are between the age groups of 14 to 30 years. Of them, the majority are school children.