• Police & NDDCB join forces to rehab 50 each in 256 centres for 14 days, Police to follow-up post-rehab 

The Department of Police and the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) have teamed up to launch the 'Suwasara Kedella', a programme they claim to be the largest drug addiction rehabilitation initiative ever undertaken, which aims to rehabilitate 12,800 drug addicts simultaneously.

Speaking during the programme to launch the first few rehabilitation centres under the programme, the Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon said that there are only 30 rehabilitation centres in the country at present, including 25 maintained by volunteer organisations and five by the Government. 

“Only 4,750 persons are rehabilitated at these 30 centres per year, but the number of drug addicts in the country is estimated to be over 500,000. It is to address this gap that the Police and the NDDCB launch this rehabilitation programme, and it is the largest drug addiction rehabilitation programme ever implemented in the country.” 

Under the programme, he said that a total of 256 rehabilitation centres including 58 in the Western Province, 34 in the Central Province, 18 in the Sabaragamuwa Province, 22 in the Uva Province, 32 in the Southern Province, 15 in the Eastern Province, 21 in the Northern Province, 27 in the North-Central Province, and 29 in the North-Western Province would be established during the next few weeks. He added that each such centre would rehabilitate 50 individuals at once, for a total of 14 days, and that their behaviour would be followed up by the Police, even after the rehabilitation process. 

Speaking further, Tennakoon said that the ongoing ‘Yukthiya’ (Justice) operation aimed at eliminating organised crime and the drug menace in the country has led to a significant reduction in the availability of drugs. 

He commented on the mission's success in breaking the drug supply chain, saying: “We've seen a rapid decline in drug availability as a result of our efforts to disrupt the supply chain. It has resulted in hundreds of thousands of suspects being arrested and millions worth of drugs being seized.” 

Alongside these efforts, he said that a demand reduction operation is also needed, and attributed the ‘Suwasara Kedella’ to be one such programme.

The drug menace in Sri Lanka has surged considerably in recent years, particularly due to technology-based drug selling activities. While the Police has launched several operations to apprehend drug dealers and users, the effectiveness of such efforts has been questioned by many. It was against that backdrop that the ‘Yukthiya’ operation was launched, during which thousands of suspects were arrested by the Police and the Special Task Force.