Cocaine is here to become the No. 1 drug of choice. I made this warning in 2009, when we seized 16 kilos of cocaine in Sasa Wharf, Davao City.
Weeks later, more than a hundred bricks of cocaine worth around P800 million were recovered from the shores of Eastern Samar.
The United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration informed us that the total shipment was 1.5 tons, meaning others were able to seize the rest.
The Philippines, for years, became a cocaine tourism industry, with high-profile show biz personalities coming over for cocaine sessions.
Wars are lost by being complacent and lax, and that is why we are losing the drug war, because the Narcotics Command ignored “shabu,” saying it was expensive, when the substance first arrived here in the 1980s.
Chinese drug syndicates adulterated shabu and made it affordable. Now, even the “trisikad” driver and “tuba” gatherer are customers.
As long as the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Philippine National Police insist that the country is only a transshipment for cocaine, we will continue to be overwhelmed.
From 1.7 million drug users in 2009 (the Dangerous Drugs Board commissioned the Philippine Normal University to conduct the national survey), there are now 7-8 million drug users, according to the President.
Latin American drug syndicates will see this as an opportunity, because addicts tend to upgrade from marijuana to shabu to cocaine. This is how the drug market works.
The main battleground for drug supply reduction is not in the streets, but in our airports/seaports.
What should be done is to go after importers and distributors, and more importantly to start the fight in our homes.
This duty is exclusively vested on parents and not on the government.
CLARENCE PAUL V. OAMINAL, Task Force Haring Tupas