ILLICIT DRUGS AND THE WORK FORCE
President Rodrigo Duterte insists that drugs, the illegal ones, destroy the country. He argues that the war on drugs and the killings are necessary to save the next generation of Filipinos.
The Duterte administration claims it wants a bright future for the country. It has adopted the AmBisyon 2040, which the previous administration of Noynoy Aquino launched before its term ended. AmBisyon 2040 aims to make the Philippine a high middle- income country in a span of a generation. This translates into increasing per capita- income threefold. The Philippines by then will become a mainly middle- class society where absolute poverty has been eradicated.
So a noble program that is AmBisyon 2040 and the war on drugs has a common objective of realizing a future that is
matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay ( a stable, prosperous and peaceful society). That’s perhaps why Economic Planning Secretary Ernie Pernia justified the war on drugs as “a necessary evil.”
I am sure Ernie, who attended the seminary where he got a dose of Shakespeare, has not forgotten this famous line from Hamlet:
“To sleep — perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub! For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this Mortal coil, Must give us pause. Yes, we dream of a prosperous and peaceful life. But there’s the rub that must give us pause. The war on drugs, supposedly to secure the bright future, is misplaced.
By 2040, if things go well, Philippine development will attain the present status of Malaysia — a high middle- income country. That will be still far off from the rich income status of the US. This is where the story gets interesting. The use of illicit drugs in America seems to be associated with America’s economic development.
I came across a JSTOR Daily (“where news meets its scholarly match’) titled “America’s Work force Runs on Uppers,” authored by Kate Bielamowicz and dated June 1, 2016.
The article’s opening sentence, depending on one’s bias, is either alarming or astonishing: “America’s work force runs on amphetamines.”
The article continues” “From gym rats to Hollywood actresses to fearful college kids and stressed writers, there’s been no lack of exposés and personal interviews on the country’s prescription amphetamine and methamphetamine users… Abuse by young professionals is distressingly common — Wall Street traders, software engineers, dentists, nurses, and lawyers, all cracked out of their minds trying to keep up with the competition.”
Parenthetically, Duter te argues that shabu or methamphetamine is different from other drugs. Amphetamine and methamphetamine vary in form but as Amphetamines.
com explains: “Amphetamine is scientifically known as methylated phenylethylamine. Methamphetamine is double methylated phenylethylamine. The double process is the primary difference between amphetamine and methamphetamine in a laboratory or scientific instance. Otherwise, the two chemicals or drugs are almost identical in nature causing the same side effects, same dangers and same potential for overdose as well as the same risk of physical dependence and addiction.”
To return to how the use of illicit drugs has driven the US economy, Bielamowicz narrates how “these drugs have been accompanying Americans to work for many years now.” Citing historian David Courtwright , Bielamowicz says that as far back as the late 19th century, the New Orleans dockworkers, working for almost three days without sleep to load and unload cargo, took cocaine. Cocaine had “superhuman effects,” the workers found out. Moreover, the use of cocaine spread to other parts of the South, among black workers involved in arduous activities on cotton plantations, in railroad work camps, and at levee construction sites.
In the 20th century, on the eve of the Great Depression, amphetamines like Benzedrine became the popular pep drug in the US. Famous poets like Jack Keroauc Allen Ginsberg, and W. H. Auden took amphetamines to sustain their creativity.
Not only the intellectuals and creatives but also the American work force use amphetamines to become productive.
An important part of the history of American truck driving is about the drug use of truckers who went on long drives. Bielamowicz cites the work of historian Shane Hamilton. Says the article: “From 1930 to 1970 American capitalism was transformed, shifting from the centralized and highly regulated economy of the New Deal era to an individualized and minimally regulated economy. This shift could be seen through the growing reliance on trucks as the main form of commodity transportation, replacing the previous dominance of railroads. Truck drivers increasingly connected small, rural agricultural producers with urban consumers.”
The point is, the transformation in the US economy would not have happened without the enduring work of truck drivers whose stamina and energy depended on the use of methamphetamines.
What then could have happened if an American Duterte was in power, ordering the killing of drug users? America would not have become a great and prosperous country.
In the Philippines, our goal to achieve prosperity is articulated in AmBisyon 2040. But AmBisyon 2040 is incompatible with the war on drugs. The war on drugs is killing our work force. Many of the victims might be unemployed and unproductive, but the economic plan is precisely to make these people productive. The war on drugs thus becomes a war on the poor.
Many of the victims on the war on drugs might be unemployed and unproductive, but the economic plan is precisely to make these people productive.