From terror to drug rehab – the bureau’s work
After the Bureau of the Commissioner-General of Rehabilitation ended its task of rehabilitating former LTTE cadres in 2013, it was handed the task of rehabilitating drug addicts.
Some 1,300 recovering addicts are housed at the bureau’s Kandakadu Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre in Somavathiya, while a further 700 are being given vocational training in Navasenapura, Welikanda and will receive an NVQ Level 3 professional qualification on completion of their courses.
The bureau is rehabilitating the largest number of drug addicts in the country, said Major-General Janaka Ratnayake, CommissionerGeneral of Rehabilitation.
“In 2015, courts were sending 35-40 people a month for rehabilitation. Today, they are sending 200-250 people a month to us. Our main challenges are lack of adequate space and resources,” MajGen. Ratnayake said.
He said the bureau could not recruit staff to rehabilitate drug addicts. “That would duplicate the work being done by the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board, so we can’t do that, so we are essentially stuck in one place without an ability to recruit staff,” Maj-Gen. Ratnayake said, adding that its centres are run by armed forces personnel.
Nevertheless, he said, the bureau plans to rehabilitate 3,000 drug addicts this year at the Kandakadu centre.
Post-rehabilitation support is essential to ensure that those who are rehabilitated do not relapse into addiction, he said. The bureau has Post-Rehabilitation Assistance Branches in eight districts: Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Puttalam, Hambantota, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kurunegala.