Pubdate: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer (Philippines) Copyright: 2006 Philippine Daily Inquirer Contact: http://www.inquirer.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1073 Author: Michael L. Tan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Summary+Execution (Summary Execution) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Death+Penalty (Death Penalty) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) DRUGS AND THE LAW Pinoy Kasi I WASN'T surprised when I learned about the police raid on a 600-sq-m lot in Pasig City, with some 40 shanties selling illegal drugs. They were doing this much like roadside restaurants, complete with menus. "Shabu tiangge" [methamphetamine hydrochloride flea market], some newspapers called it. Others described it as a shabu supermarket. And yet it's fairly common knowledge that Metro Manila and other large Philippine cities are now saturated with drug dens. In Cebu City, there are even "shooting galleries," where drug dependents go to get their drugs injected intravenously. What did shock me about this place in Pasig was the scale of the operations. The police arrested some 300 people, including 59 minors. There were at least two pregnant minors, one aged 17 and the other 14. Besides the drug use, there was also prostitution. Apparently some of the women drug-users were selling themselves to pushers if they didn't have money to support their habit. All of this was happening half a kilometer away from the Pasig City Hall and the Eastern Police District headquarters. And in broad daylight (the raid took place around noon). What was it like in this place at night? I wondered. Shoot 'Em Several policemen and operatives from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Authority (PDEA) have been suspended, and our politicians, from the President down, are now talking tough about the drug problem. So far though, the action taken has been one investigation after another, with Congress now trying to get into the act. Congress will probably review the laws and propose an increase in penalties. "Shoot the pushers!" vigilante groups will proclaim, as if they're not already doing this. Every few days we hear of corpses floating down rivers, and communities identifying them to be suspected drug pushers. But this police model of responding to drugs with more laws and harsher penalties just isn't working. In fact, I'd argue it worsens our drug problem. This happens for two reasons. First, it does little to address the needs for drug prevention and rehabilitation of dependents. Second, the law actually gives even more opportunities for the corruption that allows the drug problem to grow. In 1972, Ferdinand Marcos decreed a Dangerous Drugs Act that included imposition of the death penalty for drug pushing. To show he meant business, Marcos had a drug dealer, Lim Seng, executed by firing squad, the grisly event well covered by mass media. For a short period after that, the drug trade subsided, but with time, it was back to normal for pushers and users, drugs passed out together with canapes at the parties of the rich and the famous. The Dangerous Drugs Act itself became almost irrelevant, as drug use patterns changed. It did not include, for example, metamphetamine hydrochloride, on its list of prohibited substances and there were several judges who used this as an excuse to acquit shabu manufacturers and pushers. Comprehensive? Eventually, Congress passed Republic Act No. 9165, now called the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. This new law is even stricter than Marcos' version, with penalties for every kind of offense imaginable. I was listening to one of the police officials after the Pasig drug bust and he was practically gloating about the types of criminal charges they could slap on the people arrested. At one point, he even mentioned that "visiting a drug den" was punishable. He was right: according to Republic Act 9165, anyone who "is aware of the place (drug den) as such and shall knowingly visit the same" can be imprisoned from 12 years and one day to 20 years, with a fine of P100,000 to P500,000. But that new law is comprehensive only when it comes to punitive measures. When it comes to prevention, it offers little. The implementing rules and regulations, for example, require all business establishments that have 10 or more employees to try to build a "drug-free workplace." It includes education on drug abuse, random drug testing, even a provision that the workplace should have a streamer or billboard that reads: "This is a drug-free workplace; let's keep it this way!" Streamers? They're about as useful as those "Get high on God, not on drugs" billboards on the streets. Drug testing? Shabu is excreted from the body in three days. Education on drug abuse would work, if you have properly trained people and teaching materials, but no one's supporting that, as far as I know. The law is there to scare people into behaving. The penalties are heavy, I can assure you. Just as an example, the possession of eight grams of shabu carries penalties of imprisonment of 20 years and one day to as long as life, with fines of P400,000 to P500,000. Moreover, if the person found possessing that amount of shabu was in the "proximate company of two people," presumably in a drug den, the maximum penalty can be death, and the fine goes up to P10 million! Why did I zero in on "eight grams of shabu"? Because that's the amount of shabu the actress Nora Aunor allegedly had when she was arrested in the United States some time back. Nora Aunor certainly isn't going to get imprisoned anywhere close to 20 years in the States. In fact, the word is that her lawyers are pleading for a light sentence, plus community service. Protection Is the United States too lax? Actually, their use of imprisonment for drug users is seen as barbaric by Europeans and doing little to solve the bigger social problem. The American model pours much more money into police operations and throwing drug users into jail, with far too little going into rehabilitation. When Aunor's case first made the headlines here, I asked a friend, a drug dependent, if he knew what would happen if the actress were to be convicted here, for the possession of 8 grams. He shrugged his shoulders and tersely replied, "Nothing. She has connections." He was probably right. The law actually helps nurture the drug trade. In our corrupt system, the heavy penalties increase the potential take for police. After the Pasig raids, for example, the police coddling other dens all over the country are bound to increase their protection fees. And whenever these fees increase, we see the involvement of higher officials. That's not the end of it. As more and more powerful godfathers become involved in this lucrative industry, the operations actually grow in scale, so it's not surprising that the dens have now become "tiangge" and supermarkets. I'm just talking about protection money here. In urban poor communities, I've heard stories of people having to pay extortion money to the police after being set up with planted drugs. There are probably millions of pesos going into bribes as well for the police, and judges, to get an arrested relative off the hook. Some are real offenders, and others are just hapless fall guys and victims. Alas, the Pasig shabu supermarket only reminds us that the law is very much on the side of the drug syndicates and their "kumpare" [close buddy] politicians, police and judges. - --- MAP posted-by: Tom