Every Parents should be Vigilant- whether Children are Engage with TOBACCO Products

According to the survey and investigations conducted has by The National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) revealed use of tobacco in Sri Lanka’s school system has recently shown a “significant” rise, where statistics indicated that current tobacco smoking prevalence among those aged between 18 and 69 years is at 15% with a daily smoking prevalence rate of 10.2%.

NDDCB Chairman Shakya Nanayakkara Speaking at on a Press Conference held on 31st July, Stated these findings.

Mr. Chairman Shakya Nanayakkara furhter stated that “in many cases, tobacco-based preparations are made at home and that therefore, all parents should be extremely vigilant in this regard. “According to the information and documented data that we receive, it has been found that the use of tobacco is rapidly becoming popular among school students”.

Compared to other drugs, the use of tobacco has increased among school students.

“What we have discovered during the investigations is that many students produce these tobacco preparations in their homes”.

Such a situation is very serious.

“The spread of these drugs in schools is done by the students themselves”.

Therefore, the school administrations and parents need to look into this,” he said.

Official statistics for drug addicts do not include under 18-year-olds who are involve in use of elicit substance use.

He all so added “in the past few months of this year (2023) alone, about 50,000 “ice” (crystal methamphetamine) drug addicts have been identified”.

50,000 ice drug addicts have been identified in these seven months alone for this year 2023

From Sri Lankan School aged children’s perspective this is very unfortunate because these numbers does not account for individuals under 18 years of age. Therefore, this figure is obviously higher than the actual numbers.

EDITORIAL : What about boys ? It is worth noting that when it comes to elicit substance use, boys are far more prone to their usage compare to girls, this does not implies every time boys should be looked at under suspicion, but rather a special attention should be given to them and also we have to take into considerations as, what are the Social to Economical and psychological factors to circumstances that leads young children being  addicted tobacco and elicit substances use and why it is on an upward trajectory among Sri Lankan children ?