Monday, July 26, 2004 Shabu is 'drug of choice' in RP
SHABU, not marijuana, is the preferred drug of choice in the country today, with students comprising the bulk of first-time users, according to records from the Dangerous Drugs Board.
DDB executive director Jose Calida also told Baguio reporters Sunday that from 2001 to May this year, anti-narcotics agents seized some P11.9 billion worth of shabu, mostly from the National Capital Region, as against the P2.76 billion worth of marijuana and its derivatives confiscated for the same period in various anti-drugs operations.
This only shows that "marijuana is not the preferred drug of choice, it is shabu," he said, adding that the figure is quite alarming, considering that as per information, big-time drug lords and pushers are targeting the students and youth as end users.
As such, Calida said "we're now into demand reduction. We're taking away persons from drugs."
One way to achieve this, he added, is the enhancement of the government's Barkada Kontra Droga program, "a preventive education method of hardening the resistance of the youth and students who are the main targets of the pushers".
The program informs the youth of the ill-effects of the prohibited substance through lectures and various fora conducted in schools, as part of the massive information education campaign being done in the all-out war against drugs.
In Baguio, local officials earlier expressed apprehension on shabu use among students following reports that the city could be one of the favorite havens of pushers, considering that students comprise around 35 percent of the city's population.
A news report published in some national dailies last year even quoted a source as saying that students in one of the universities in Baguio buy as much as a kilo of shabu from pushers.
School authorities, however, denied such allegations.
Calida said there's need to empower the youth to resist the temptation of drug use. "We (should) make the students be the catalysts in their own peer groups."
"Drug problem is an international problem. (But) we're winning the war against drugs (especially) on supply reduction. Now, we're turning to demand reduction," he added, saying that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has given the DDB "marching orders that by year 2010 when she steps down from the presidency, we have won the drive against drugs."
Calida said that to further intensify the campaign against drugs, DDB will propose amendments to the Anti-Wire Tapping and Anti-Money Laundering laws "to catch big-time drug syndicates while in the act of giving orders (via electronic gizmos)" on clandestine operations."
"(Since) big-time drug lords don't go to clandestine laboratories, we could catch them in the act of giving orders through their cellphones and other electronic devices," he explained.
Calida said that with regard amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering, "we will be proposing the `know your customer rule'."
He said the DDB is now preparing a draft bill to be submitted to the Congressional Oversight Committee on Dangerous Drugs.
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