PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte had failed in his campaign promise of solving the illegal drug problem in three to six months of his term. He finds out that the problem is bigger than he thought it was.

Recently, he admits that the problem has grown out of proportion, with Mexican cartels getting into the picture.

It has been three years now that he had waged his campaign, at the cost of so many lives, and yet it seems not a dent had been made on the problem of drug trafficking. Despite the threats, the killings and the raids, the problem seems to grow.

So what does this tell us? It’s telling us that there’s something wrong with the supposed methods of solving the problem. Other countries have learned their lesson. Thailand, Venezuela, among other countries who have done so many things in trying to solve their drug problems have tried better ways other than police enforcement.

So perhaps, the Duterte administration should begin to rethink its ways in fighting the drug problem. Perhaps, there are other ways. Maybe it can be looked not as a criminality problem, but a health problem, specifically a mental health problem.

Then maybe the administration can look at it differently, from a new perspective and be able to think of fresher solutions.

That way, there will be fewer collateral damage.