SENATE GIVES FINAL NOD TO TOUGHER DRUG LAW

The Senate approved on third and final reading yesterday the Comprehensive
Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 expanding the scope of the old law, lowering the
amount of drug possession needed for capital punishment and imposing
stricter penalties for traffickers and users.

The bill was certified as urgent by Malacañang, allowing the chamber to pass
it on second and third reading on two successive days.

The death penalty provision as proposed by the Senate committee on public
order and illegal drugs was carried despite the objection of Senate Minority
Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who later agreed to withdraw his
manifestation.

Sen. Robert Barbers, principal author and sponsor of the measure, maintained
that the trafficking and use of illegal drugs constitute a heinous crime
that should be meted the capital punishment.

Ecstasy, the drug of choice of scions of well-to-do families, and other
similar designer drugs, now fall under the scope of the Dangerous Drugs Law.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said the Senate rushed the approval of an
amended version of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 to add teeth to the
campaign against the menace of illegal drugs.

Under the proposed bill, life imprisonment to death or a fine ranging from
P500,000 to P10 million shall be imposed for the physical possession of the
following minimum quantities of the banned drugs regardless of the degree of
purity or quality: 10 grams of Ecstasy, opium, morphine, heroin, cocaine,
cocaine hydrochloride, marijuana resin or marijuana resin oil; 99 grams or
more of shabu; and 500 grams of marijuana.

Under the present law, one has to possess 200 grams or more of any of the
banned drugs to merit the maximum penalty.