Act No. 41 of 2022 took effect on 23 November, adding methamphetamine to the drugs whose manufacture can draw death or life imprisonment. It also rewrote bail for heroin, cocaine, morphine and methamphetamine: once the Government Analyst reported more than 10 grams of pure drug, only the Court of Appeal could grant bail. Cannabis cases stayed outside that rule and remained with the High Court, which could grant bail only in exceptional circumstances. Cannabis itself stayed outside the death penalty.[1][2][3][4]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Sri Lanka here.
References
- Sri Lanka Mirror — Poisons & Opium Act in effect from today (23 November 2022)Act No. 41 of 2022; passed 19 October; certified and in force 23 November.
- Sri Lanka Mirror — Keeping 5g of Ice: Death sentence to anyone (24 November 2022)Methamphetamine added to death-penalty offences; 5 grams threshold.
- Sri Lanka — Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, Chapter 218, consolidated 2024 (Lanka Law, PDF)Section 83(1)–(3): High Court bail only in exceptional circumstances for section 54A offences; 10 grams and death or life imprisonment for morphine, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.archived
- The Sunday Times — Anti-narcotics bills passed as Opposition questions anti-drug strategy (25 October 2026)Retrospective on the 2022 amendment and the later bill to raise the bail threshold to 100 grams.
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.