SWING A BIG STICK VS DRUGS

PRESIDENT Estrada has a strong reason for saying that drug lords should be
executed next to Echegaray because drugs trafficking and use in the country
have reached such a level as should worry deeply the political leadership.
According to data from the National Drug Law Enforcement and Prevention
Coordinating Center (NDLEPCC), headed by police director Jewel Canson as
executive director, the drug menace has spread to 6,020 of the 42,979
barangays around the archipelago. That is a 14-percent prevalence in the
barangay level and is something to arouse a very serious concern in our
society. The thing is, the scale of drugs trafficking and use could be
higher tomorrow as the supply and the intake of methamphetamine
hydrochloride, popularly known as "shabu," and cannabis (marijuana) continue
even as pushers and users get busted from time to time. Hence, the President
wants the convicted drug lords, regardless of gender, to be the ones put
under the lethal needles this time to impress upon the merchants of illegal
drugs still plying their evil trade that the government means business in
its war against narcotics.

In a report on the drug situation on the Philippines, the NDLEPCC states,
"The devastating effects of illegal drugs on Filipino families are
appalling." The report reveals that in 1972 there were only about 20,000
drug users.

By 1989, the report adds, the number of drug users had soared to 480,000.
Today the estimated number of drug users is 1.7 million.

This situation suggests that the guy sitting next to you on a jeepney or
bus, or inside a movie theater, or residing in your neighborhood could be a
potentially, if not actually dangerous drug addict.

If this sounds like an exaggeration it is because drugs trafficking and use
in the Philippines have broken the normal level.

They have become a national menace.

The NDLEPCC report cites a survey by the National Youth Commission that said
roughly 1.2 million of the 17 million (7 percent) of young people aged 15 to
29 years old were drug users.

A large number of the hope of the fatherland, then, are drug-zonked.

And here is another eye-popper: 70 percent of crimes committed are
drug-related!

As this is written a dispatch from our CAMANAVA reporter, Anthony Giron,
comes out of the fax unit: A high school student allegedly abducted, then
gang-raped by 10 youths high on drugs.

This item indicates that, while the death penalty could deter a sane and
sober person from committing a crime, drug emboldens a criminal and wrecks
his rational faculties.

As a result, he rapes and kills his victim as if there were no laws in this
world.

A drug-high Philippines, therefore, is a crime-plagued Philippines. For this
reason, the President's intention to make the country drug-free by the year
2000 requires a combination of political resolve and uncompromising action.
The government leadership, therefore, has to match its big words with a
bigger stick.

A big stick is needed to deal with the fact that, according to the NDLEPCC,
the Philippines remains a producer, exporter and consumer of cannabis.

The report reveals that the country ranks sixth among Asian countries in
terms of volume of cannabis seized totaling 36.2 metric tons for the past 10
years. It was revealed further that in 1972 there were only nine identified
areas engaged in marijuana cultivation. Today, the report says, 98 sites in
nine regions are marijuana plantations. Consequently, as the growing of
marijuana spreads the number of addicts increases.

In the case of shabu, the report says it is brought into the country by drug
syndicates from Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was revealed that a recent Interpol
information bared an emerging connection between heroin and methamphetamine
hydrochloride producers in East and Southeast Asian regions, as indicated by
the fact that these types of drug are seized together frequently. In the
Asian region, the report continued, the Philippines ranks second to China in
terms of volume of drugs seized totaling 1,602 kilograms in the past two
years.

It was reported further that China continues being a significant source of
the illicit drug entering the Philippines while Hong Kong and Taiwan remain
as the staging points of Chinese Triad syndicates financing drugs
trafficking operations in the Philippines. The report reveals that the
syndicates use the Philippines also as a transit point for heroin and
cocaine bound for the United States and Europe with Nigerians arranging
shipments via the mails and by couriers.

From 1972 to 1979, the report states, the total value of drugs seized was
only about P80,000. From 1979 to 1989 the value rose to P440,000. After
shabu was introduced in the local market in 1989, the combined total value
of drugs seized from 1990 to 1998 reached over P20 billion!

That's the kind of money lost to the legitimate economy during that period.

There's no quantification of the lives damaged and those destroyed by drugs.

Meanwhile, the government's anti-illegal drugs initiatives suffer flaws that
weaken the action against drugs trafficking and use. According to Director
Canson's report, successive amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act (RA 6425)
deprived the law of focus by "putting a premium on the quantity of the drugs
seized and not on the criminal act and intent of the drug trafficker as the
determinant for the gravity of punishment." The report cited the fact also
that "a host of government agencies, business, private foundations, civic
clubs, and ad-hoc community groups" are engaged in the promotion of drugs
prevention programs but that their efforts have failed to produce the
desired results because of lack of coordination, deficiencies of the
participating entities, and other constraints.

In other words, all the government agencies and private organizations
involved in the fight against drugs trafficking and use have to put their
acts together.

As important as a coordinated, sufficient action against drugs are citizens'
participation and national will to strike down the menace for good through
citizens' and police action, conviction and punishment. The thought of a
drugs-free Philippines represents big thinking, but that thought can be
transformed into reality with a big stick