Illicit drugs and school children: Immediate need for effective corrective action - II

by Chandra Wickramasinghe.-February 26, 2016

(former Council Member of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board)

(Continued from yesterday)

Re –vamping the Criminal Justice System of the country

What can one expect when thugs, racketeers and people of criminal persuasion have a field day in the knowledge that the chances of their being incarcerated are somewhat remote.It is,as a cynic put it, a matter of law and disorder! There have been Presidential Commissions appointed to examine and report on the current state of law and order in the country. The recommendations made in these Commission reports do not seem to have found favour in certain quarters which would have been materially affected by their implementation.This is most unfortunate as the Criminal Justice System of the country which should take a good share of the blame for the parlous state of affairs in this regard and which needs to go through a complete revamping, continues to plod along the same tortuous ways and by-ways, much to the exasperation of the ordinary citizenry.

The illicit drug problem is only symptomatic of the larger moral and socio-economic malaise that seems to afflict the entire polity of this island.What appears to be necessary is a searching appraisal of the overall current situation with a view to assessing the magnitude of the problem in all its dimensions.Once this is ascertained, the next step would be to map out strategies to combat the problem.These should comprise comprehnsive preventive strategies and the necessary rehabilitative programmes.The former should be re-inforced by tough legislative measures which would effectively circumscribe and stymie the illegal activities of the drug lords who fund and organize the mafia networks. Educational programmes to build up awareness, particularly in the minds of the youth, should be organized sensitively and incorporated in the school curricula and disseminated via the electronic media. I am aware that certain Corporate plans have been formulated by the National Dangerous Drugs Board to combat the drug problem.There was in fact a comprehensive Master Plan prepared and adopted more than a decade ago which has only been desultorily implemented.One cannot underscore the key role strategic planning plays in the formulation of policies and their implementation in meeting challenges and successfully overcoming them.In this regard, it has to be remarked that the failure to react decisively and the resultant paralyzing inaction in many areas of national policy, could only be attributed to the lack of or oftentimes the absence of, properly formulated strategies to meet exigent situations.We seem to be fast becoming a nation of crisis riders, looking on askance while things deteriorate and then suddenly blow up in one’s face! We then ride the resultant anarchic chaos the best we could and once the panic abates and a sense of normalcy returns, sit back and await the visitation of the next crisis!                 Read more...