Our new President, Rodrigo Duterte, asked us that he be given three to six months to eradicate the problem of drug trafficking and abuse that’s plaguing our country. The number of casualties in the ongoing war against drugs, which is hardly a month-old, has alarmed the Commission on Human Rights and some citizens.
Can we really win a war against drugs? We’ve been fighting this war for years, but illegal drugs remain within reach of anybody who wants to use them. What if the proliferation of drugs is not the real problem but just a “symptom”?
A drug user goes into drugs to get high, to feel good—but why? Doesn’t living ordinarily make a man feel good enough such that he would still have that deep longing for an “extraordinary” feeling? These questions make we wonder: Could it be that society itself is the real problem? This judgmental, unequal, unfair, uncaring and cruel society.
For drug users, drugs are a means to break away from reality—the cruel society. We have created monsters without our knowing it. We live, judge and decide without looking into and taking into account all sides. We think that habits and vices divide the human race, but the truth is, the division is an illusion, and always will be.
Instead of killing the dealers and jailing the users, why can’t we just change ourselves? Make society a feel-good place for everyone. If we all try to make a better world and succeed, then maybe no one would want to use drugs anymore because society feels good enough to live in, and society is happiness itself.
—GERARD MARK ASAHAN, gerardmarkasahan@gmail.com