Strips to detect alcohol, drug consumption among prison inmates

The Prisons Department has introduced Alcohol Strips to detect alcohol and drug consumption in the urine of prison inmates, Deputy Director Prison Health services Dr Hemantha Ranasinghe said.

He told the media that many ways of bringing drugs into the prisons had already been banned.

“We conduct a random check on prison inmates with the use of these strips to find out whether the inmates had used drugs or alcoholic substances. If the strips result positive, we can conduct investigations on the suspect on how the drugs still come into prisons,” he said.

The strips were handed over to the Prisons Department as a contribution by a leading company as a result of the actions taken by the Prisons Commissioner General to prohibit bringing drugs into prisons, Dr. Ranasinghe said.