With regards to drug rehabilitation, studies on selected programmes show that moderate success when psychological counselling, family involvement and structured aftercare are strong
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala’s recent statements in Kurunegala have rightly focused national attention on the drug menace. The commitment to treat drug users as individuals requiring medical and rehabilitative intervention rather than automatic imprisonment, while reserving strict enforcement for traffickers and distributors, is a necessary and welcome correction. The readiness to bypass inactive police stations, the emphasis on not ignoring intelligence, and the establishment of national and district anti-drug councils alongside thousands of community-level public security committees signal political determination to break the decades-long nexus between narcotics, organised crime and political protection.
These are important signals. However, bold announcements and high-profile raids alone will not deliver a sustainable victory. It is easy to announce measures; it is far harder to implement them effectively. Much of what has been done in the past, and even some current operations, remains essentially reactive, responding after harm has already occurred. While it is better late than never to mount a serious national effort, these processes must now be made genuinely meaningful. They require clearly defined immediate, mid-term and long-term goals with measurable milestones and regular evaluation. If the campaign is to succeed, it must urgently strengthen four critical institutional pillars while placing prevention at the centre, driven by proactive and strategic intelligence.
Rehabilitation
Directing users towards treatment instead of prison is the correct strategic choice. Yet the effectiveness of current rehabilitation efforts remains uneven and insufficiently evaluated. Studies on selected programmes show moderate success when psychological counselling, family involvement and structured aftercare are strong, but national relapse rates remain concerning. Many programmes suffer from resource constraints, weak post-discharge follow-up and limited vocational pathways.
Success demands that rehabilitation be treated as a professional, evidence-based discipline. This requires standardised protocols, adequate trained counsellors, meaningful family engagement, robust aftercare and independent evaluation of long-term outcomes. Capacity must be scaled dramatically. Without these, the rehabilitative pillar risks becoming a revolving door that wastes resources and undermines public confidence.
Technical Sophistication
The drug trade has evolved. Traffickers use encrypted communications, digital finance and sophisticated concealment. Relying primarily on traditional raid-and-arrest tactics guarantees diminishing returns.
Sri Lanka needs accelerated investment in advanced forensic drug analysis for network mapping, expanded digital and cyber forensics to clear backlogs, strengthened financial investigation for asset tracing, and data analytics for intelligence fusion across agencies. Officers must be equipped and trained for this more complex environment. Without this technical upgrade, the campaign will remain one step behind adaptive criminal networks.
The Judiciary: An essential but under-engaged partner
No campaign succeeds without an efficient, well-informed judiciary. Forensic reporting delays keep thousands in remand and weaken deterrence. Judicial officers and prosecutors require systematic exposure to addiction science, complex forensic evidence and modern trafficking realities. Structured dialogue and coordination mechanisms between law enforcement and the judiciary are operational necessities, not luxuries.
Accountability must not become demoralisation
The vast majority of police officers serve with dedication under difficult conditions. While firm action against the corrupt minority must continue without fear or favour, generalised public narratives of failure damage morale and risk creating perverse incentives for shortcuts. Officers deserve clear direction, resources, protection when acting professionally, and recognition of their contribution.
Public awareness, responsibility, cooperation and participation
None of these improvements will succeed in isolation. This is not one-way traffic. Public awareness of the true scale of the menace, combined with a clear understanding of shared responsibility, is essential. The people must recognise that they are simultaneously victims of this threat and the primary beneficiaries of success. With that recognition comes responsibility, to report credible intelligence, support rehabilitation and reintegration, protect young people from recruitment, and reject the stigma that hinders recovery.
Public cooperation and active participation are enormous in their potential. Places of religious worship, mosques, temples, churches and kovils, can serve as powerful common ground and trusted platforms for effective implementation. Through interfaith relationships and the shared religious and community values of compassion, discipline, family protection and social responsibility, police and communities can work together far more effectively than through enforcement alone. These sacred spaces and the leaders who serve them can mobilise awareness, encourage early reporting, support those in recovery, and reinforce positive behavioural change across all communities. When police, public and places of worship come together in this spirit, genuine participation becomes possible and we move forward as one happy Sri Lanka nation.
The thousands of public security committees already formed must be genuinely activated and empowered as the grassroots engine of this partnership.
From reactive to proactive
Immediate goals should focus on visible network disruption, rapid user referral and activation of community structures. Mid-term goals must deliver technical upgrades, judicial coordination and institutional capacity. Long-term success, however, rests overwhelmingly on prevention.
Whatever else is said and done, the most effective, efficient and ultimately most beneficial investment is in robust prevention measures-sustained, consistent and powered by proactive intelligence blended with actionable and strategic intelligence.
Proactive intelligence methods move beyond waiting for walk-in informants or chance discoveries. They involve systematic, all-source collection and rigorous analysis to anticipate and disrupt threats before drugs reach communities. This includes developing and managing human sources in high-risk communities, transport hubs, ports and commercial sectors on an ongoing basis; financial intelligence operations that proactively trace suspicious fund flows and identify facilitators upstream; technical and cyber capabilities to monitor evolving communication platforms; open-source intelligence monitoring of precursor chemical movements and emerging synthetic substances; and sophisticated link analysis and network mapping that connects traffickers, corrupt enablers and financiers into identifiable, targetable structures.
When these proactive efforts are fused with high-quality actionable intelligence for immediate disruptions and strategic intelligence for long-term policy and systemic interventions, prevention becomes genuinely preventive. It allows authorities to target vulnerabilities in supply chains and recruitment points rather than merely reacting to street-level seizures. Prevention is not soft; it is the hardest and most strategic work. It demands the same professional rigour, resources and intelligence support as enforcement operations, and ultimately delivers far greater returns for the nation.
Sri Lanka Police
The Sri Lanka Police remains the prime law enforcement agency in the country today. It has so far done well in curbing the underworld, criminal syndicates, drug cartels and extremism to a significant extent. This does not mean that everything is in place or that all is well. Root causes persist and continue to be exploited by interested political elements from time to time. These root causes must be systematically eliminated, kept under constant check and decisively wrapped up.
The main concerns in society today centre on the image of the police and the effectiveness of policing. Are our officers ready to run the extra mile? Are they sufficiently motivated to do so? Over and above the motivating factors lie serious demoralising influences that operate almost continuously through uncertainty and unverified information disseminated via social media.
This is a grave issue that must be addressed urgently by both the government and the police hierarchy. The slightest incidents are exaggerated without verification, fuelling curiosity and hatred. Personal vendettas are settled through organised social media platforms. Most seriously, sensitive documents and operational information are leaked onto these platforms, a matter on which police officers of all ranks have expressed concern from time to time.
Are our policemen ready for change? Yes. They possess their own pride and dignity. What they require is proper guidance, clear assurance and inspiring leadership.
To address this challenge effectively, the following practical measures are essential:
Establish a professional, 24/7 official communication unit with verified social media channels to rapidly counter false narratives with facts rather than allowing misinformation to fill the vacuum.
Enforce strict internal discipline with swift, transparent action against officers who leak sensitive documents or operational information, regardless of rank.
Create a dedicated monitoring and response capability within the police to track harmful trends early and coordinate timely, factual rebuttals.
Formally engage major social media platforms to secure faster removal of damaging content while launching sustained public media literacy campaigns through community and religious platforms.
Provide visible leadership, clear assurance and institutional protection to honest officers, while maintaining firm accountability.
Clapping together as one happy island nation
The law enforcer cannot clap with one hand. You need two. Success requires both hands working in rhythm, the firm, professional hand of intelligence-led enforcement, modern capabilities, effective rehabilitation and an efficient judiciary, supported by the strong, responsible hand of an informed and engaged citizenry. When police, public and places of religious worship come together through interfaith cooperation and shared values, we clap as one. In doing so, we do more than suppress a menace. We build safer communities, protect our youth, restore institutional integrity and move forward together as one happy Sri Lanka nation.
It is time to move from announcements to outcomes, from reactive responses to structured immediate, mid-term and long-term goals, and from rhetoric to disciplined, intelligence-driven prevention and collective national effort. The stakes are too high for anything less.
(This analysis is offered in the interest of national security, institutional reform, and public safety)
(The writer is a Senior Superintendent of Police (Retd.), Former Deputy Director (Counter Terrorism), State Intelligence Service; Former Director, Police Special Branch)
This article was originally published in Daily Mirror on July 29, 2026.