A noble mission

It is heartening to note that the Police have declared all out war against the drug menace. IGP Mahinda Balasuriya is quoted in our front page report as saying that his men had arrested 3,135 suspects involved in hard drug trafficking within the course of one week. The special Police Unit created to deal with drug offenses have also seized a massive quantity of over 9,061 grams of hard drugs during this period.

Significantly the Western Province has been singled out as the heartland of the drugs trade. The IGP said 11,622 places had been raided in the Mt. Lavinia, Borella and the Kelaniya Police Divisions alone. No mention has been made about Colombo Central which is considered the epicentre of the drugs trade given its vast subterranean culture which facilitates illegal activity.

The drug menace has assumed alarming proportions, hence the latest Police action is indeed praiseworthy. We say so because now drugs have made their way even into schools. Today the young are increasingly getting addicted to substances such as Babul and Madhana Mothaka and it will only be a matter of time before they got addicted to hard drugs when there would be no turning point.

The ready availability of these substances near schools are a matter for grave concern. The deep inroads the drug menace has made into society can be gauged by this phenomenon. Not only that, today drugs are also found in prison cells. The detection of hard drugs in the Welikada women’s prison cells by the Special Police Unit among mobile telephones, SIM cards and phone charges tells a tale. This shows there is complicity among prison officials in the drug rackets that are being operated from within the prison walls.

This should provide food for thought to the IGP who should take steps to probe the involvement of law enforcement officers in the drugs trade. For, it is elementary that the drug business cannot flourish to this extent without the active support and connivance of the law. Not all law enforcement officers belong to this category. There are dedicated officers who go to great lengths to bust drug rings. There were also instances where some Police officers paid with their lives in gun battles with drug operatives. No doubt such dedicated officers count a majority in the Police Department.

But there are a minority in khaki who turn a blind eye to the drug business for monetary rewards. They are in the pay of leading drug barons to look the other way. It is such men that the IGP should be vigilant about in his all out war against the drug menace. Needless to say there are even politicians who give sanctuary to drug lords. The nocturnal visit by a former Minister to the home of a slain drug baron in Slave Island to pay his respects, during the Premadasa era is public knowledge.

The IGP should ensure there is no political meddling to release drug offenders. He has embarked on a worthy crusade to eradicate the drug menace from the country as part of the President’s mathata thitha program. Nothing and no body should be allowed to stand in his way in accomplishing this task.

This is a crucial phase in the post independence history of the country where for the first time unprecedented development is being witnessed following the dawn of peace after a three decade long protected civil war. The country needs all the human resources it could muster to accomplish this gigantic task. For this, it is vital that we have a healthy young generation to be stakeholders of this development program. This is not a time that the country can afford to be saddled with drug addicts and alcoholics which are bound to be a liability to the nation.

This is the reason why President Mahinda Rajapaksa soon after ending the scourge of terrorism declared that his next war would be against drugs and alcoholism. The President no doubt would not have wanted the country to be saddled with an unproductive generation who rather than be an asset would be a great hindrance to the nation’s forward march.

Now that the IGP has taken upon himself the onerous task of ridding the country of the drug menace he should be given all the assistance and co-operation in his mission. No stone should be left unturned to eradicate this cancer that has been plaguing the country for decades eating into its vitals and destroying the future of an entire generation. Nothing less than an all out war would suffice. We hope the IGP would live up to expectations and come up trumps in his mission to save the country’s younger generation from the danger of drugs.