He made these remarks during a special meeting on the progress of the National Drug Prevention Program for the year 2015 and regarding their future plans for the year 2016, held at the Presidential Secretariat, yesterday (27).
A group of delegations representing all the institutions related the National Drug Prevention Program participated in this discussion.
The President also said that he will take action if there is any need to make amendments to the existing laws on raiding illegal drugs.
He also gave instructions to the relevant officials to pay their special attention to the increase of the consumption of illegal drugs in the North.
The President instructed the Commissioner General of the Department of Excise to strictly impose laws against the illegal liquor stores which are being operated contrary to the Excise Act. He also instructed the officials to issue related circulars to actively implement the National Program on Drug Prevention at every government institution within next six months.
In this discussion it was mentioned that the public can provide information about drug rackets through telephone number 1919 which provides an opportunity to the people to tell their problems directly to the President.
The President was made knowledgeable about the progress of the programs initiated in 2015 by all relevant institutions for drug prevention. Accordingly, the representatives from the Departments of Customs, Excise and Police presented information on the related raids.
The attention was also paid on the program to be implemented in 2016 through the Presidential Task Force on Drug Prevention. They also discussed about an implementation of a comprehensive program for school children to contribute to the National Program on Drug Prevention. Furthermore, they paid consideration on implementing of programs to raise the public awareness on drug prevention, through District Secretariats and Provincial Secretariats.
Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa, Commanders of the Tri-Forces and the Inspector General of Police were among those participated in this discussion.
