CITY OF SAN FERNANDO---Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Acting Chairman and Undersecretary Paul Clarence Oaminal said Saturday that the more than 200 cocaine bricks seized in Samar late last month could save a million dope users in the country.
In a statement furnished for Sun.Star Pampanga, Oaminal said that the seizure of the illegal drug is the country's significant contribution to the world anti-drug campaign in 2009.
Oaminal noted in the report that a dope user averages a consumption of .01 to .02 grams of cocaine per session. He said a gram of cocaine could be shared by a conservative estimate of 5 persons or a cocaine brick like that seized in Samar, weighing one kilo, could be consumed by at least 5,000 dope users.
Oaminal said were it not for the fast action of the Philippine Government led by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the retrieval of the drugs, it would now have been distributed and consumed by dope users in the Philippines, US, Europe and Hongkong, the point of destination of the vessel that unloaded the shipment.
Oaminal noted that that the PDEA and PNP may not have the best technologies and logistical requirements but they, he said definitely achieves their mission.
Oaminal added that the past year alone, the PDEA in coordination with the PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation have dismantled more than a dozen clandestine shabu laboratories nationwide, including several outfits in Floridablanca, Porac and Angeles City here.
Meanwhile, Oaminal said in the statement that he welcomes the appointment of Secretary Bebot Villar as the new chair of the DDB, who will assume office on January 4.