Plans are afoot to establish a Presidential Task Force to prevent the use of toxic and dangerous drugs, the President’s Media Division (PMD) says.

This was revealed at a meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat on Monday (Dec 19), under the chairmanship of Minister of Justice, Prisons Affairs & Constitutional Reforms and Presidential Secretary Saman Ekanayake.

Accordingly, under this task force, a special plan of action will be jointly implemented by all relevant institutions to crack down on the increasing use of toxic and dangerous drugs. This was discussed at length during this meeting.

The focus of the discussion also fell on the drug menace that has plagued the schools and the expeditious measures to put an end to the matter.

Drug prevention, identifying drug addicts and drug peddlers, providing treatment and counselling to victims of drug abuse, future measures that need to be taken regarding the drug addicts who are currently under detention, volunteering services to help addicts, community-based rehabilitation and the Drug Dependant Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act were also taken up for discussion.

The meeting was attended by Public Security Minister Tiran Alles; Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, Prisons Affairs & Constitutional Reforms Wasantha Perera; Prisons Commissioner General Thushara Upuldeniya; Rehabilitation Commissioner General Major General (Rtd.) D.D.U.K. Hettiarachchi; Chairman of National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) Shakya Nanayakkara; Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Kamal Silva and several others attended the said meeting.