Strict enforcement of laws on alcohol/smoking needed, DM

Use of sporting events to promote use of alcohol and smoking among school children should be strictly controlled, Deputy Minister for Health, Dr. Hansaka Wijemuni said.

He said some major cricket tournaments for schools, which come up in the first term use such events for subtle promotion for their products.

The Sri Lankan Health Department's warnings against drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco use must be strictly enforced,  he added.

The Minister said  that the structure of the country’s community mental health care is not effective enough in addressing the present demands making this a concern.

Though anti-tobacco and anti-drugs are deeply rooted in the country’s culture, he said that despite several organized awareness campaigns against them, drug use, alcohol consumption and smoking are being socially promoted by respective companies in a highly psychological and organized way with massive financial investment.

"Alcohol and drugs directly contribute to deaths and many instances of illness in the country. Therefore, a lot of money is spent on this problem through the Ministry of Health’s budget,” he said.
The deputy minister mentioned that alcohol and drugs also form the main reason for numerous instances of accidents happening in the nation.

While making an assessment of all sectors of the country's healthcare system, a large number of patients admitted to hospitals are hospitalized because of tobacco and drug consumption and a large proportion of bed capacity in government hospitals are occupied because of those factors he added.

In this regard, he also told that alcohol and drugs, either directly or indirectly play a role in a significant percentage of abuse, mental health problems and other related scenarios, which pose a serious challenge to the Ministry of Health.

The Deputy Minister said, "But since these statistics are put into the Ministry of Health statistics, they are distinguished in terms of figures for non-communicable diseases, accidents, and mental health. Nevertheless, because the cause is somewhere else, the Ministry of Health has to investigate these in depth."

The Deputy Minister indicates the above statistics are distinguished in terms of ‘non-communicable diseases, accidents, and mental health’. Nevertheless, because the cause is somewhere else.

These comments were made by the Deputy Minister during his attendance as the Chief Guest of the certificate awarding ceremony of fifty participants who have successfully completed the quarterly psychological counseling certificate course on tobacco and drug prevention, organized by the National Authority of Tobacco and Alcohol.

The awarding ceremony of the certificates was recently conducted at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall.

This certificate course was launched by the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol in 2021 and this is the fifth annual occasion when this course has been organized.