DRUG ABUSE DECLINES, BUT NUMBERS ALARMING

GOVERNMENT efforts for a drug-free Philippines may be gaining
ground, but the number of high-school students all over the country
who use or have used illegal drugs remains a cause for alarm.

Dr. Benjamin Reyes, program manager of Treatment and Rehabilitation
Centers of the Department of Health, said on Wednesday that 0.8
percent, or 160,000, of the 20 million students in both private and
public secondary schools are into drugs.

"The drugs or illegal substance used by the students are marijuana,
shabu or solvent," said Reyes at the weekly Meet the Press Forum of
the National Press Club.

He said the figure was based on results of random testing conducted
by the Departments of Health and of Education in 287 secondary
schools nationwide from June 2004 to March 2005.

He said 67, or 0.8 percent, of the 8,670 students tested positive.
He added that 54 percent preferred marijuana, while the rest used
shabu or solvent. The students belonged to the 11- to 20-year age
group. All those found to be drug users were male.

Reyes clarified that not all of those who tested positive are
addicts who require treatment and rehabilitation. But he said most
of them definitely need counseling and monitoring, which is exactly
what the departments are doing.

He warned throwing the students into rehabilitation cen-ters with
certified drug addicts would only make the problem worse. He said
care must be taken that these young people do not acquire additional
knowledge about the use of illegal drugs from hardened drug addicts.

Secretary Anselmo Avenido Jr., chairman of the Dangerous Drugs
Board, said the country's drug-abuse problem remains at an alarming
level despite apparent drop in drug use as may be gleaned from the
declining admission rates in rehabilitation centers.

Avenido said that admission rates in rehabilitation centers have
been going down in the last few years, noting that some centers that
can accommodate as many as 10,000 patients for rehabilitation now
have about half of their usual number of patients in the past.

He said the government effort to arrest drug dealers and pushers
made it difficult for the young people to obtain drugs. He said
available record points to a decline in drug use.

Avenido said the DOH-accredited drug-testing centers reveal that the
number of those who tested positive for drug use has declined, from
0.19 percent in 2004 to 0.1 percent in 2005 and to 0.04 percent as
of October this year.

He denied that narcopolitics already rules the country. "I don't
believe we are in a state where Colombia was many years ago when
drug money found its way into nearly the entire government
bureaucracy," he said.

But he admitted there are politicians and government officials,
including those in law enforcement, who are involved in the illegal
drugs trade.