Cannabis is obtained from the plant of the genus Cannabis. Cannabis is the only drug that grows in Sri Lanka. It is grown illicitly, mostly in the dry zones of the country (in the Eastern and Southern provinces). Cannabis causes euphoria, "high" feeling, pleasurable state of relaxation, impaired performance, sleepiness, confusion and hallucinations.

Cocaine

Cocaine, which is obtained from the plant of genus Erythroxylon coca, is available as a paste, or "Crack" hard white rocks or flaky material. Cocaine is smoked, sniffed or injected. It causes euphoria and alertness and postpones hunger and fatigue.

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Fifty two percent increase in cannabis related arrests during 2010 compared to 2009:

Present trends indicate an increase in the misuse of cannabis, the latest Handbook of Drug Abuse Information issued by the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board said.

According to statistics of the handbook, there had been a 52 percent increase in cannabis related arrests during 2010 compared to 2009.

Around 20,259 persons had been arrested for cannabis related offences in 2010 while this number was 13,300 in 2009.

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If hard drugs are continuing to flow into Sri Lanka, the inescapable conclusion is that there is a considerable demand for them in this country. This is discomforting news but that is the harsh reality.

The prisons are chockfull of those who have been convicted of drug-related offences and the news is that there has been no decrease in the rate of hard drugs-linked detections. In fact, we are given to understand that last year, 38 kilograms of heroin were seized and some 14,000 or more persons were arrested in connection with hard drugs related offences.

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The Colombo Plan (CP) is reintroducing its initial objectives to the member countries, Secretary General Patricia Yoon told the third year review meeting of the Outreach/Drop-in Centres, the drug addicts rehabilitation centres, last week.

Our motto is "planning prosperity together" and it suggests the partnership concept aimed at social and economic development of its member countries.

The main focus of the CP is technical cooperation among developing countries or South South cooperation.

Through these efforts CP has been serving its member countries for 57 years, she said. She said that in the past, the economies in the Asia Pacific region were mainly agricultural.

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Around 3500 Sri Lankans are living with HIV and the number is increasing rapidly as a newest trend of injecting drugs is becoming popular among many parties. Health Ministry STD/AIDS Control Programme National Director Dr. Nimal Edirisinghe told The Sunday Times that although there was a popular belief that injecting drugs was uncommon in Sri Lanka, at present it has been a major contributor to enhance the number of AIDS patients.

"There is a popular fashion among youth going to nightclubs and parties to inject drugs, which creates a high risk. As there is a shortage of heroin drug addicts seem to opt for injecting drugs. We also got to know that some prisoners too are getting injected with drugs and in most of these cases the same needle is being used a few times," he said.

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The proliferation of heroin has assumed such alarming proportions that the new President Mahinda Rajapakse in the Mahinda Chintana has vowed to eradicate the drug menace.

The government policy in eradicating drugs is now clearly stipulated in the Mahinda Chintana. The state will now mobilise its resources to combat this menace which had plagued the country for so long. A period of three years have been allotted to achieve this task.

Police say that things are now hotting up for drug lords and traffickers after IGP Chandra Fernando declared war on them in keeping with the state policy.

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It has become a gigantic task to stem the flow of heroin across the Palk Strait mainly due to less patrolling of seas both by the Sri Lankan and the Indian authorities specially after cessation of hostilities between the government and the LTTE.

In the meantime it has been observed that there is a surge in heroin being smuggled into the country by organised groups. Large quantities of heroin with a street value of over Rs. 500 millions have been detected by the Marunnkan and the Talaimannar Police last week. In fact the second biggest haul of heroin i.e 11 kilos this year was detected at Anguruwatota last week.

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Buddhasasana and Deputy Defence Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake on Friday disclosed that the Government has taken a firm decision to eliminate drug trafficking activities involving affluent people in the country with the help of law enforcement officers.

He said it was pathetic that these people who are leading luxury lives are still in the habit of slipping the security blanket by using various methods.

He made these remarks at the annual awards ceremony, conducted by the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB), in Colombo on Friday. The awards were presented to a selected officers, attached to the Police, Army and Navy who contributed immensely for minimizing the selling, possessing and trafficking of dangerous drugs.

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With the increasing number of criminal cases reported due to substance abuse, the first ever National Volunteer Project (NVF), under the guidance of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, was set up yesterday to form a strong 'force' on divisional level to combat the high rate of addiction to harmful substances - alcohol, tobacco and chemical substances like ganja and heroin.

This project has been implemented under the government's programme for the control of crime and drug related offences as outlined in the UPFA manifesto including prisons reforms, control of violence, drug and alcohol use with special attention to children. The President's Fund has allocated Rs. 2 million for the project.

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The week that was focused on two important problems which have been holding Sri Lanka in their grip for quite sometime: the widespread abuse of hard drugs and increasing mental illnesses and emotional instability.

There is a close link between the grave malaises because increasing emotional turmoil among vulnerable groups, exposes them to the risk of hard drug abuse. This is particularly true of some sections of our youth, although mental illnesses are no respector of age or generation.

Commenting on hard drug abuse, President Kumaratunga had this to say: "We know that the youth are not wilful perpetrators of crime. Neither do they become addicts out of choice... They are only victims of a wider social crisis that our society is going through for which we are also responsible". Very illuminating words indeed. A wider social crisis forms the backdrop to these problems currently ravaging Lankan society: Hard drug abuse and rising mental ill-health.

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The recent media reports of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine moving to legalise limited cultivation of cannabis for the usage of Ayurvedic practitioners were of considerable interest to those in the practice.

And to the public - who had been aware that cannabis is categorised as a "dangerous drug" in Sri Lanka and that its cultivation, production, possession, sale and trafficking amounted to a criminal offence.

How much do we know about Cannabis? Or, Kansa, as it is locally known. Or, ganja, the narcotic made from this plant. Or, Cannabis sativa l., the name by which the researchers recognise it. Cannabis had been known to have narcotic and also medicinal and pain-relieving properties in ancient Hindu literature and in the local Ayurvedic practice.

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SRI Lanka plans to lift a ban on growing cannabis and begin government cultivation of the plant, which is a key ingredient in traditional medicine, a minister was quoted saying today.

Indigenous Medicine Minister Tissa Karaliyadde said he hoped to introduce a bill in parliament to allow practitioners of herbal medicine known as ayurveda to grow at least five plants each.

The state itself hopes to start cultivation and land has already been earmarked for the pilot project, The Island newspaper quoted Karaliyadde saying.

Despite an official ban on cannabis in Sri Lanka, it is easily available on the clandestine market both for traditional healers and smokers.

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Heroin smuggling across the Palk Strait will come under intense scrutiny of both the Indian government and the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB). The Indian authorities have indicated their willingness to share intelligence relating to heroin smuggling with their Sri Lankan counterparts.

DIG, Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) Jayantha Wickremaratne said a top Indian civil administrator who oversees anti-narcotic operations in India had pledged his support to the PNB to crackdown heroin smuggling from within the Indian territories. DIG Wickremaratne had met him in Bangkok while attending a conference of South Asian law enforcement agencies last week. He said the Indian authorities are keeping a tab on the activities of several Sri Lankan drug dealers operating on Indian soil.

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Drug abuse may be an islandwide problem in Sri Lanka. But for the majority of drug addicts, Colombo offers a haven to indulge in their favourite method of consuming drugs, namely `chasing the dragon'.

Out of some 87 per cent treated for drug abuse in the island, an overwhelming - 68 per cent came from the Colombo district, followed by the Southern and North Western provinces.

While heroin was the drug of choice of most who came for treatment, `chasing the dragon' (the Chinese method) was the most preferred method of consumption, states the newest handbook of Drug Abuse Information 2003 published by the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB).

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Sri Lankan Pedophiles Are Jailed For Using Heroin Lollipops To Lure Victims.

Nov. 20, 2000 - The adage to never take candy from strangers applies more than ever in the Sri Lankan city of Galle, where at least 20 children were lured into sexual abuse after becoming addicted to heroin-laced lollipops. Last week, two members of the pedophile ring were sentenced to prison in connection with the bizarre case.

The South China Morning Post reports that according to authorities, H. Amaradasa and D. Nimal, both fathers of young children, used candy suckers tainted with heroin to befriend 12- and 13-year-old children, and lure them into sexual abuse. As the children became addicted, the devious men supplied them with larger quantities. The doped-up children were then forced to participate in filmed sexual activity with tourists. The school targeted by the pedophiles, ironically, was believed by parents to be a safe haven from sex offenders.

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COLOMBO, March 28 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka has prohibited smoking and the sale of cigarettes in all state institutions, the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs said on Sunday.

The ministry said advertising of any form for the promotion of smoking had also been banned in state institutions following recommendations made by the Presidential Task Force on Tobacco, Alcohol and Illicit Drugs.

"Accepting sponsorships by state institutions from those who promote smoking should be prohibited," the statement added.

Sri Lanka is reviewing plans to ban advertising of alcohol and tobacco products on radio, television and in the print media.

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To arrest the flow of ganja (cannabis sativa ), the popular local narcotic, from the jungles of the southern belt still proves unsuccessful.

Police raids on jungles and the stop of ganja plantations, netting in suspects, but imprisonment of those responsible have not put a stop to this menace. It was revealed that the city continues to get in more or less a regular stock of the narcotic, despite tough actions to arrest the flow.

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