Sorry, dear Ranjan, but blood tests don’t prove a damn cocaine thing
Experts say he’s dialled the wrong number
Film actor turned politician Ranjan Ramanayake is one of a kind, the kind of which the nation needs a whole army of. Though sporting the green hue on his lapel he has been able to transcend party loyalties and expose injustice wherever he found it no matter where the dustbin lay, be it at Sirikotha in Kotte or at the SLFP headquarters down Darley Road in Colombo.
He has arrogated unto himself the mantle of being the self-appointed ombudsman of the nation, the FCID, the
CID and even the Bureau of Narcotics all pumped to his muscled bound physic. Despite being the watchdog of his own party and ever alert to snarl, growl, bark and even snap at his own master whenever he felt him stray, he has not been kenneled, sent to the dog house but kept housed at home in a state ministerial position by the party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who had long realised that what the party needed was not a pet poodle or a lapdog but a Rottweiler to guard the party gates and even bite party friends.
With film star looks and silver tongue with his acting skills and fame preceding his political appearance on the Lankan political stage, he has charmed both the electronic and print media and captivated the social media as well; and with his savviness has been able not only to emerge as a one-man crusade against crime and corruption but also to survive the dangers that lurk in the political jungle and escape unscathed. Good job and well done. The nation needs, as said before, a whole army of guys like him to checkmate without fear the errors of his peers and the follies of his superiors. And, come what may, though the heavens may fall on him and his party, boldly reveal to the nation the errors of their ways.
His latest admirable crusade has been to wage war on drugs and to expose in the open the long known fact that there were many in politics walking, talking, working, sleeping, living on a high after sniffing coke: that narcotics had taken hold and warped their political judgment.
In the wake of drug lord Madush’s arrest in Dubai, he made the startling revelation of mass drug taking by members of Parliament and threatened to expose their names. While all cried ‘The list, the list, show us the list’, he was summoned by the political high command to appear before a committee appointed by Ranil Wickremesinghe comprising State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne, Prof. Ashu Marasinghe, President’s Counsel Nissanka Nanayakkara while the head of the committee is Public Enterprise and Kandyan Heritage Minister Lakshman Kiriella.
Ranjan insisted, “My claim about certain lawmakers consuming cocaine is true. There was no need for me to make false statements to gain attention. Some ministers whom I used to associate with very closely may now be angry with me. No matter what happens, I will reveal all the names I have with me to the committee.”
At the meeting he volunteered to reveal names. The four-member committee, however, declined his offer and instead asked him to reveal it to the police for necessary action. But before casting the first stone at those who were stoned already, he took a blood test to prove he was in the clear and dared his fellow members of Parliament to do the same and confirm they had taken nothing but mother’s milk since childhood. The only one to follow suit was UNP member Budlike Pathirana who, like Ranjan, flaunted a blood test report to TV cameras proving his purity.
Aye, there’s the rub. For, according to leading medical experts, there’s no lab in Lanka which can test blood for narcotic drugs. So where did Ranjan and Buddhika get their blood tested? Did they both fly to Singapore to get the results confirming negative for drugs?
Speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday, the leading expert in the field of toxicology Dr. Ravindra Fernando, Professor of Forensic Medicine said: There is no laboratory in Lanka that tests blood for drugs. The samples will have to be sent abroad. There are only urine tests done here.”
And here’s the clincher.
Professor Fernando further said: “Even a urine test will only confirm positive for drugs if one has taken drugs within a week. There will be no trace left either in blood or urine if a narcotic had been taken five or six days before the tests. A hair test can show whether one has taken drugs within six months but such a test is not available here.”
Confirming the same was Professor of Pathology Dr. Ranjith Amaresekera who told Sunday Punch: “No blood test facilities for drugs are available in Lanka. Only a urine test can be done. The urine test will show whether one has taken narcotic drugs cocaine, marijuana, or sleeping and pain killers Methadone, barbiturates, and other anti-depression drugs but even then no trace will be left in either blood or urine if taken after four or five days before the test is done.”
Sorry, to say Ranjan, but your blood test report must be a fake. Same with Buddhika’s And your clarion call for other politicians -- bloodsuckers, not blood givers -to take a blood test to prove their cocaine virginity rings hollow in the face of expert opinion. And even a hair test which may show evidence of drug taking within a period of six months – what does it prove, anyway.
Far better to concentrate your energies to prove not whether politicians are drug takers but their links to drug peddlers.