The government will hold a national anti-drug youth conference on June 26 as part of its “Ratama Ekata” (A Nation United) campaign to eradicate drug abuse, the Presidential Secretariat announced.
The date deliberately coincides with the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. According to NewsFirst, the conference aims to prevent drug use among young people and mobilise rural communities to confront trafficking networks.
A preparatory meeting on the initial organisational activities was held at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of the Secretary to the President, Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, the President’s Media Division said.
The conference is being jointly organised by the National Youth Services Council and the Ministry of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs.
The youth summit is the first concrete event date announced under the Ratama Ekata programme that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake launched earlier this month, which sits alongside the broader Ratama Ekata anti-narcotics operation that police say has produced more than 156,000 arrests and the seizure of 1,917 kilograms of heroin since its launch in late October 2025.
Government officials have framed the cabinet’s drug push as a two-track effort — supply-side enforcement against trafficking networks (including waves of arrests in Buddhist monastic centres and at Bandaranaike International Airport) and demand-side prevention work through schools, divisional secretariats and youth bodies. The June 26 conference is positioned in the demand-side track.
Details of the venue, expected attendance and youth-led programming have not yet been released.
