JUST THE NAKED TRUTH

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte was just stating facts when he said only the poor sell drugs, meaning shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride). For if I were a drug lord with billions in my possession and guns and goons at my disposal, no way will I go around peddling shabu, the poor man’s drug.

If I were a drug lord with billions in my possession and guns and goons at my disposal, I will not even try shabu. It’s so hoi polloi, it’s so Atchup Boulevard. It will fry my brain and make me ugly. Why should I use meth when I can get heroin or cocaine or high-grade cannabis?

President Duterte was only stating a fact when he said that only the poor will be caught and sued, and that is not even because the rich will get away with anything, although many times they do.

But this is really because of the quirk in the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, which among others identifies the violator as any person who shall “sell, trade, administer, dispense, deliver, give away to another, distribute, dispatch in transit or transport any dangerous drug”.

It has been proven over and over again in court decisions that first, there has to be solid evidence. That is the very reason why even as the list of police and government officials involved in drugs goes on and on, not a single case can be filed. They have to be caught in possession or in administration of. Period.

Now who is caught in possession of? Usually, the pushers, the runners, the dealers, the user. The people very low in the totem pole. The poor. That is but the truth and the President was just stating it in its naked glory.

True, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act also penalizes the protectors, the coddlers, the financiers. But who among the well-placed protectors, coddlers, and financiers will carry around an affidavit declaring that he is a protector, coddler or financier? Not one single person ever will.

Thus, even if you already suspect as much, even if an ordinary SPO1 (Senior Police Officer) has a one-hectare mansion and a dozen SUVs, all you can file for is graft and corruption and perjury for not stating these in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), but never for drugs.

It hurts for the poor to be exposed that way, but it’s the truth. Only the poor are the ones that the law can crack down on big time because the law itself is crafted to ensure that only those who have actual possession can be tried and be found guilty.

It’s a Catch 22 situation, if the law allows just mere suspicion without possession, then the criminal world can easily prey on the innocent and hail them to court and incarceration. But since the law demands actual possession, then only the foot soldiers can easily be caught.

Even major raids on factories can hardly catch the financiers, for who is stupid enough to finance a multibillion peso illegal operation and hang out where the illegal operation is being done?

There’s an easy way out of this though, and you will even live long without frying your brain: do not get into drugs. As the President had often said when he was still the mayor of Davao City, poverty is never an excuse to commit a crime, much less push and use drugs. Many a poor who has lived and survived without succumbing to this criminal world can attest to that. — Sunnex