GETTING HIGH ON THE POOR MAN'S COCAINE

IT'S simply incomprehensible, says the chief of the Philippine
National Police. On many counts, the police raid last week on
'one-stop restaurants' for shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride)
nestled in a slum community in Pasig City, Metro Manila, is also
absolutely incredible and tragic.

The raid led to the arrest of 320 persons, including 59 minors, a
four-month-old baby, and a pregnant 12-year-old. Clad only in
t-shirts, shorts and slippers, they were seized from a 600-square
metre compound that clusters about 40 shanties located half a
kilometre away from the mayor's office.

The baby's mother had a shot at shabu on the day of the raid, and in
the ensuing melee apparently forgot that she had borne a child. The
pregnant one was very thin but wore a big, bulging stomach. Apart from
her, two other girls aged 16 and 17 were also in the family way.
However, a majority of those apprehended were boys ranging from four
to 15 years of age.

Days later, the police reported that more than half of those arrested
had tested positive for use of the prohibited substance that in other
parts of the world goes by various slang names - speed, ice, glass,
trash, crank, chalk, chicken feed. In developing countries like the
Philippines, shabu is also typically described as "the poor man's cocaine."

An amphetamine used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride, shabu
is often used as a nervous system stimulant and appetite suppressant.
In many countries today, it ranks together with caffeine, alcohol and
nicotine among the most pervasive, and perverse, stimulant drug of
choice by users and pushers. Like virtual 'restaurants,' the shabu
shops offered customers a menu of servings big and small, and with
extra accoutrements. They could rent tooters and aluminum foil for
sniffing the substance, and buy in small gram units.

The 150-member police team swooped down on the shanties and in nearly
every unit, seized packs of what looked like the prohibited powder, as
well as peso bills and coins stashed in plastic bags. So many were
arrested that the police ran out of handcuffs; some had their hands
tied up with just straws and cords.

In many ways, the entire village was a flea market for banned drugs.
Four armed men guarded the narrow entrance to the compound that was
introduced to customers by wooden signage stamped with the name "Shabu
Shabu Restaurant." Instructions written in chalk set down house rules
for customers: "No loitering here. Pickpockets are not allowed here.
Those who will not pay will be punished."

As per house rules, severe punishment awaits wayward customers,
including "confinement in the toilet for one week" for first-time
offenders; 1,000 pesos in fine for second-time offenders, and for
third-time offenders, the dire warning of "you will be turned into a
dart board." The arrested later told stories of how they managed to
enter the compound by simply paying the 10-peso entrance fee per
person, or 30 pesos for a five-person group.

They are then allowed to choose any one of the 40 tiny shanties that
stretches no more than foursquare metre in area. A girl, 12, who had
lived in the compound for about 10 years says the operators refer to
the customers as "scorers." Some of the shanties serve as homes to
some families.

Curiously, the drugs mall is called 'Sitio Mapayapa,' or peaceful
village). By all indications, the shabu flea market thrives because it
bursts with customers delivering the millions that line the pockets of
the operators. In 2003, the United Nations Office on Drugs had
estimated that Filipinos were the world's fourth biggest users of
shabu. The illicit industry reportedly rakes in a low of 216 billion
pesos (about $ 4.3 billion) and a high of 432 billion pesos (about
$8.5 billion) in annual sales. The Philippines is the world's third
largest shabu producer, after China and Myanmar, according to the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The upside to the story came
yesterday from government and private sector social workers. "They
were not customers. The children were being used as runners for
different stalls," explained Director Marcelo Ele, chief of the
Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force. Thanks for small
mercies.