DRUG PROBLEM WILL DRAIN OUR FINANCIAL RESOURCES

ROSES AND THORNS By Alejandro R. Roces

According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, we have 3.4
million drug addicts in the country today.

Already, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the expansion
of jails and the establishment of more rehabilitation centers.

It is a known fact that even prisoners in jail manage to get their
supply of illegal drugs and that some policemen are involved in the
sales and distribution of drugs.

Philippine National Police Anti-Drug Task Force Commander, Deputy
Director General Edgar Aglipay said that 93 PNP officers and men have
already been charged with illegal drugs involvement and 18 more are
facing criminal charges. According to reports, as many as 114,000
policemen have connections with drug lords.

We say the drug problem is awesome because we do not have enough jails
or rehabilitation centers to accommodate even a fraction of the 3.4
million drug users who should be confined.

In fact, what is needed are special jails with accompanying
rehabilitation centers reserved only for convicted drug addicts.

You can imagine what a drain this will be to our financial resources.
Funds that could be used to build homes for the poor and create jobs
for sustainable development will be squandered instead on housing,
feeding and rehabilitating drug addicts.

But this has to be done. Drug addiction is now our major
problem.

The drug problem cannot be solved merely by jailing the
users.

The users are just the victims of the pushers and the drug
lords.

They are, of course, willing victims.

The drug lords are the people who should be identified, arrested,
prosecuted and jailed.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina, Jr., says that this
will happen soon. The agencies mobilized by President Macapagal-Arroyo
already know the identity of the persons behind the 13 transnational
syndicates and 175 local drug groups operating all over the country.

The government is now collecting all the necessary evidence against
these drug lords in order to insure their successful prosecution. The
penalty for such a crime is death and the President has said that she
will not stay the execution of any criminal who has been given the
death penalty if his crime involved drugs.

It is not only the money that the government will have to spend in its
campaign against drugs that is lamentable. It is the money that drug
users have spent to satisfy their illegal desires.

Imagine if that had gone to creating jobs! We have 3.4 million drug
users who should be in jail undergoing rehabilitation! Instead of
contributing to the peace, order and progress of their country, they
have become the largest negative force. They cannot earn a living, so
they have to beg, borrow or steal in order to sustain their vice.
Three million four hundred thousand useless citizens! That is a
significant segment of our population. They can be the determining
factor on whether we will be moving forward or backward in our times.