Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe yesterday said life imprisonment or the death penalty will hereafter be handed down by the Courts only to those found guilty of possessing 5 grams or more of heroin.
The minimum level liable for life imprisonment or death sentence earlier was two grams.This has been revised upwards in view of the current congestion in the prisons as they already house a large number of drug offenders.
The Minister said it has been decided to give legal authority to the High Court to grant bail for those who are detected with drugs up to 10 grams and the Court of Appeal for those possessing above 10 grams.
Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe told Parliament yesterday (10) that the government has decided to establish a task force to combat drugs.
The minister said that a regional force was established a few weeks ago under the leadership of the governor of the Northern Province and it is currently being actively implemented.
The minister said this while joining the debate to adopt nine bills and a system of regulations as the Justice Ministry.
“There is a hope of the people that the outdated laws should be changed and a system change should be done. Former Justice Minister Ali Sabri appointed many committees and studied the issues of many ordinances in depth and with the support of senior lawyers, made a big change in the law and presented the ordinances to the parliament. The Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Amendment Bill has been presented today. Some important points have been included in the presentation of this bill. Especially, new toxic drugs which were not available at the time of passing the Act have been introduced to the society today.” he said.
Today, society has been engulfed by these drugs. Especially ICE is something that is not included in the schedule of the Drugs Act. This drug is dangerous.
The opinion of expert doctors was looked into. More brain-altering than any other drug. The life of the person addicted to this thing is limited to two years. No matter how much we try to enforce the law, there are cases where even the drugs that are seized due to the deficiencies in the law and the corrupt actions of the officials are released back into the society.
This will happen because these are kept in judicial custody or police custody. After these types of toxic drugs are caught, we should keep sufficient evidence to maintain the case, save photographic evidence of them and destroy the toxic drugs with the participation of the relevant parties. It should be done under the supervision of judges.
Accordingly, the repeated use of toxic drugs in society will be stopped.Laws are being prepared to send those under 18 years of age to probation for rehabilitation instead of sentencing them to prisons. There are problems with sending addicts to rehab without a court order. After resolving them voluntarily, a great effort is being made to rehabilitate these addicts and make them proper citizens of the country. According to the existing law, the court has the power to give the death penalty or life imprisonment for people who have done business with heroin and cocaine, if they have more than 2 grams.
This law has been amended taking into account the current situation in prisons. The law has been amended by increasing the limit of two grams to five grams. Several issues have been discussed in this regard. It has been decided to grant bail to the High Court for a person who has possession of up to 10 grams, and to entrust the granting of bail to the Court of Appeal for those accused with possession of more than 10 grams.
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