Drug mules and the rising spectre of drug usage

Two days ago, the British tabloid 'Daily Mail' highlighted a story of a young British woman who was apprehended at the Katunayake airport with 46 kg of 'Kush'—a potent strain of cannabis—in her possession.

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We will refer to the young woman as Ms X, as she has not been found guilty of any crime as yet. The market value of the drug the young lady carried is estimated to be approximately 1.2 million sterling pounds!

The carrier or mule claims she was not aware of the 46 kg which was in her luggage! Curiouser and curiouser, one could hardly imagine anyone not realising their baggage was quite overweight, given that 46 kg of stuff was stuffed into her bag.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, it is estimated that there are currently about 45,000 regular users of heroin and about 600,000 users of cannabis in Sri Lanka. It is further estimated that between 1-2% of heroin users are IDUs.

Lanka has witnessed a troubling rise in drug addiction among its younger population. According to the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB), the number of drug-related arrests reached 152,979 in 2022. Alarmingly, a significant proportion of these arrests involved individuals aged 15 to 25, highlighting the vulnerability of the youth to substance abuse.