A drug tale

SO much has been said about the current administration’s war against illegal drugs. The country has been vilified and criticized by certain sectors here and abroad for waging a bloody campaign to try to eradicate the social menace.

Critics have been quick to point out the trail of bloodshed that the anti-illegal drugs drive has left in its wake, and yet don’t pay much attention to the people who have to live with this problem. Take for example the story of Joan (not her real name since she requested anonymity).

In Sun.Star Cebu’s Rona T. Fernandez’s article, Joan recounts growing up playing “hide and seek” in their household. While her peers did so for the fun of it, Joan and her family had no choice if they wanted to hold on to their valuable possessions.

“It’s better that way because if I was not a step ahead, I would never be able to find my stuff if they got a hold of them,” she told SunStar in Cebuano.

The “they” she was referring to were her two maternal uncles who are nearing their 40s. They had been hooked on drugs since they were teenagers. Unable to find or keep a job, they relied on the generosity of family members for their day-to-day existence and to support their habit. That generosity eventually dried up, leaving the two men to fend for themselves.

What they did next was what many drug addicts nationwide resorted to when relatives stopped giving them money, and that was to steal from the latter. This resulted in many heated verbal exchanges that sometimes led to violence.

Joan and her family were plunged into a nightmare that endured until Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte won last year’s presidential election. Her two uncles decided to turn over a new leaf, and admitted themselves to a private rehabilitation center just weeks before Oplan Tokhang was introduced last year.

Since then, Joan said, she has been a staunch supporter of the government’s anti-illegal drugs campaign.

Last Saturday, she was one of the participants of the Black Parade launched by the Cebu City Office on Substance Abuse Prevention (Cosap). The activity was part of the agency’s pledge to make the city drug-free, explained Cosap executive director Garry Lao.

The public needs to be aware that the fight to rid society of the drug scourge is not only about gun-toting authorities conducting raids that have led to the deaths of nearly 4,000 drug personalities, according to official estimates, or over 7,000, if you believe the critics. Sometimes, it’s about the daily struggle that families with drug dependents face, often with death as their only reprieve. Sun.Star Cebu