Sunday, January 07, 2007 Shabu price up due to crackdown By Rachelle M. Nessia
THE intensified campaign against illegal drugs has jacked up the street value of shabu in the country, according to a report from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
SPO1 Manuel Sanchez, Action Monitoring Officer of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in the province made this confirmation.
Sanchez said the street value of shabu in the province is now priced at P3,500 per gram. In 2005, it was being sold at P2,000 per gram.
Sanchez said the costlier shabu trade in the province is a result of the stepped up efforts to crackdown on illegal drugs operations, which has resulted to numerous arrests in the province in 2005.
PDEA has conducted a total of 80 anti-illegal drugs operations in the province, which led to the arrest of 111 drug personalities, disclosed Sanchez.
"The price of shabu went up because of the operations," he said.
Sanchez assured that PDEA is set on conducting more operations in 2007.
The NBI in its report said that in the years 2000 to 2005, the street price of shabu was around P5,000 for five grams.
In 2006, the price increased to around P18,000 to P20,000.
NBI Regional Director Ruel Lasala who heads the bureau's Anti-Illegal Drugs Task Force said joint operations with PDEA to dismantle major drug laboratories in the country has drastically slashed the supply of the banned narcotic.
"According to the law of supply and demand, if the demand is there but the supply is limited, the price rises," said Lasala.
Meanwhile, Malacañang stressed that police crackdown on shabu should be lauded as it is effectively making the prices of the drug higher and thereby curtailing the market.
The government will continue to pursue all anti-crime programs and step up safety patrols in the metropolis and other major cities to ensure the safety of the public.
