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The fight against narcotics

Law enforcement agencies enjoyed a particularly successful year in the fight against narcotics in 2003. The Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB), Customs and police stations netted a record 53 kg of heroin worth over Rs. 106 million during the year. The PNB also took into custody the number one drug kingpin in the 'most wanted list'.

This is no small victory for the law. The detections indicate that the law enforcement agencies are actively clamping down on drug dealers and users islandwide.

The Nation must be grateful to these brave officers who sometimes face death threats from drug lords and the underworld, as they doggedly pursue the aim of eradicating the drugs scourge from society.

The link between drug lords and underworld gangs has been well established. Drug money helps fund underworld activities and drug kingpins need the gangsters for running their lucrative, illegal business. Police must step up the hunt for underworld characters, whose arrest could lead to the detection of bigger drugs hauls.

There is a perception among the public that only small-time drug users and peddlers get caught, while the big 'sharks' get away scot-free.

Unfortunately, this has been the reality for so long. The arrest of several leading drug dealers has somewhat diminished these fears, but the authorities must assure the public that everything is being done to track down drug dealers who are still at large.

They should intensify efforts to halt the entry of drugs to the country at the main airport and at seaports.

Sri Lanka has earned an unenviable reputation as a transit point for narcotics smuggling. Heightened vigilance at all points of entry and transit will help the authorities to nab more drug smugglers.

International cooperation is vital in this regard. Asia has a couple of 'golden triangles' specialising in drugs operations.

Police forces across the region should share information and intelligence on the movement of drugs and traffickers, so that they can be nabbed in transit in any given country.

The appearance of newer forms of drugs is another cause for concern. Ecstasy, an expensive drug that was previously available only in the West, has now found its way to our shores.

The 'upmarket' drug is still confined to local nightclubs, though it is likely to filter down to other social strata. Urgent action is required to close our doors to these potent new-wave drugs.

New or old, drugs have the potential to destroy our most precious resource - youth. Surveys reveal that even hundreds of schoolchildren are addicted to drugs and that narcotics have spread rapidly to the outstations.

The school is the best place for disclosing the truth about drugs. Electronic and print media can also be used to conduct awareness campaigns on the effects of narcotics.

Rehabilitating youths addicted to drugs is also essential. Sri Lanka has only a very few centres that are equipped to rehabilitate drug users. More such centres should be established in key cities, so that a larger number of addicts can be turned into useful citizens once again.

The law enforcement agencies have an even bigger role to play in 2004, as smugglers resort to more sophisticated methods to bring in their contraband. They must be stopped at all costs.

Halt global warming

Just 46 years from now, more than a million animal and plant species would no longer be among us. This is the dire prediction of a study published last week in Nature, the leading science magazine. And the main reason? Global warming.

The indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels results in greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere causing a temperature rise on a global scale. Motor vehicles (550 million and rising) and industries generate most of the greenhouse gases.

A temperature increase from 0.8 degrees Celsius to a maximum of 2.0 degrees Celsius over the next four decades could have devastating consequences for flora and fauna, Nature revealed.

Many animal species are already heading towards extinction as a result of other factors such as poaching. Only hundreds of individuals are left in the wild in certain species.

Extensive deforestation - Earth is losing 33.8 million acres of tropical forest every year - has led to the rapid disappearance of hundreds of plant and animal species.

The scientific and medicinal benefits of these plants will never be known. The animal and plant kingdoms do not need global warming to compound their woes.

It would be na The death of millions of plant and animal species will directly affect humans and make their planet less hospitable. With several decades to go before 2050, urgent action will help save most of these doomed organisms and avert the ultimate catastrophe - the melting of ice caps, which will submerge whole cities.

A drastic reduction in emissions of greenhouses gases is needed to keep global temperatures at current levels. The developed world must take the lead in this endeavour.

There are several alternatives: Developing and using cleaner fossil fuels; fast-tracking the commercial introduction of fuel-cell powered vehicles, which emit only water; harnessing renewable sources of energy such as solar power on a wider scale are among them.

The loss of even one species is a blow to biodiversity. The loss of a million is unthinkable. The world must act now to prevent this impending disaster.

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