SEVERAL cities in the Philippines held elaborate programs, marches and other activities to observe the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking last Monday, with Pasig City at the forefront of such activities in Metro Manila.
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in 1987 designating June 26 as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse.
We do not exactly know how much dent by way of anti-drugs abuse consciousness such celebrations have inculcated in the masses, but we know that demand and supply of illegal drugs in the Philippines have both surged at a rate only inflation and interest could rival. School and official activities of city and municipal governments, even those of the Department of Interior and Local Government and the PNP, lack the bite needed to compel drug addicts and their suppliers to even pause.
It is both interesting and enlightening to look at how other countries are celebrating the same global observance against drugs, for it might widen our box of ideas on how best this important day might be spent.
‘The burning of drugs alone may not solve the gargantuan problem, but at least this will discourage the pilfering and recycling of confiscated drugs in the market, which some Filipino policemen are doing.’
The wires reported that Myanmar destroyed over $446 million worth of illegal drugs seized from around the country to mark the day. The burning was held in the outskirts of the city of Yangon and other cities as United Nations experts warned of increases in the production of opium, heroin and methamphetamine in Myanmar, with exports threatening to expand markets in South and Southeast Asia.
The reports noted that Myanmar has a long history of drug production linked to political and economic insecurity caused by decades of armed conflict. The Southeast Asian country is a major producer and exporter of meth and the world’s second-largest opium and heroin producer after Afghanistan, despite repeated attempts to promote alternative legal crops among poor farmers.
The UN Office of Drugs and Crime noted in a report that opium production in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, due in part to the faltering economy that has pushed more people toward the drug trade.
Thailand, too, has resorted to burning illegal drugs by the tons every time the day against drug abuse comes around, mostly in Bangkok and Ayutthaya. Two years ago, Thai officials incinerated 25 tons of confiscated drugs, including methamphetamine, ice, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin.
The burning of drugs alone may not solve the gargantuan problem, but at least this will discourage the pilfering and recycling of confiscated drugs in the market, which some Filipino policemen are doing.
Is this the reason our authorities cannot burn tons of seized drugs in public, not just a few sacks of marijuana, despite the almost daily arrests of drug suspects and confiscation of their merchandise worth millions of pesos?
