Illicit drugs

ONE of the big advantages of Duterte is that he saw how our laws are impotent against drugs. Drugs will spell the ruin of our society as it spelled the ruin of the Kingdom of China in the late 19th century. The Western countries, especially Britain, forced the fall of China by pushing drugs. It weakened the fabric of society and there was no will to stay united. I remember even in Manila some Chinese sari-sari stores were dens for smoking opium. Once they were hooked it was difficult to leave the habit of smoking opium.

This is the problem we are facing. Our laws are not able to stop the use of illicit drugs, especially shabu. Duterte used to proclaim that in the ten years he was prosecuting attorney of Davao, he was not able to lock up permanently in jail a single drug pusher. Once he was mayor of the city he made it his number one objective to banish drugs. He claimed that it was balancing the drug pushers versus the youth of the land. It was the drug pushers against the young men and women who were condemned to a living death of drugs. “If you want to push drug or do snatching, do it somewhere else, not in Davao,” he said. The result is that the people of Davao will elect him any time without his having to campaign.

I know of a prominent family who had a son who got hooked on drugs. So they sent him to a rehab center in Manila. They were greatly relieved when he came back “cured.” The father was so happy that after a year he bought him a new car. But then after a few months, the father saw drugs in the boy’s room and he flushed it down the toilet. Later they recovered the car parked still running with the son’s throat slit. He probably could not pay for the drugs that the father had flushed down the toilet. Another young scion of a prominent family got hooked. He is alive but cannot help in the family business because he has been weakened by drugs.

Quite a large amount of the international source of drugs especially shabu is manufactured in the Philippines by Chinese drug makers and distributed throughout the world. A good number of them have been caught by the excellent work of our law enforcement officers but a good many were just deported back to China. It is like throwing a turtle back into the sea, The ease by which they can get out of trouble when caught is ridiculous. We have our law enforcement men risking their lives and they get away with deportation to try again some other time. This is our big problem. Our laws are inadequate to control drugs.

Can you think of someway you can help to remove our young people from the living death of drug addiction. I asked this to some many people and they answered there is little that they can do or have thought of doing. Our country is threatened by this more than the occupation of the Spratlys. It once ruined China; it will also ruin us.

Drugs will still spell our ruin. We can tell our young boys and girls to avoid drugs but if we do not help them avoid them, they will get hooked. One of my staff was trying to collect a debt of a vice mayor. In answer he offered to pay for his debt with drugs. They have infiltrated the local government and we are sitting on our hands. Drugs will still be the ruin of our country.

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