Noreen M. Albrando Prof. Virginia D.

Alcala
MBA – II Current Economic Trends and Issues

ISSUE # 10: War on Drugs

A. Summary of the event/ issue

Drug issues in the country has been very alarming. More and more people, including

women and children are getting involved in the issue. But how do they multiply? The Philippine

Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has illustrated the process of injection of drug abuse and

transactions in the country. It starts with the drug lord. The drug lord injects a pusher in the

community. He supplies them free drugs. When a group of users are already addicted to dangerous

drugs, he abruptly cuts the supply of freebies. By that time, the users are already addicts and since

the free drugs are already cut off, they now buy their dose of drugs. They now work to feed their

addictions, where food on the table is gone, bills are starting to pile up, and automatically they do

not perform in their jobs causing them to eventually get fired. Now jobless, they start to sell their

properties to feed their addictions. Eventually, all properties and belongings are gone, their

families leave them because of their erratic behaviors. And because they are alone and penniless,

they now resort to criminality to feed their addictions, starting to commit robberies (which can

even lead to homicides) and theft or they can start selling drugs to continue the vicious cycle.

Number of drug users and addicts in the country is increasing and is very alarming because this

drug related issues tend to be the reason for more social problems. This is the primary reason why

our President places a very important push on this issue.

Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, he carried out a “war on

drugs” in the country. The Philippine Drug War refers to the drug policy of the Philippine
government which aimed at the neutralization of illegal drug personalities nationwide. President

Duterte has urged members of the public to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. He said he

would order police to adopt a shoot-to-kill policy, and would offer them a bounty for dead suspects.

However, through this drug war, this policy has been widely condemned locally and

internationally for the number of deaths resulting from police operations and allegations of

systematic extrajudicial executions. This has led to the deaths of over 12,000 Filipinos to date,

most of them are urban poor.

B. Analysis of the situation presenting the pros and cons or strengths and weaknesses or

advantages or disadvantages as events develop.

ADVANTAGES

In the advent of this war on drugs, one advantage is that it may deter or lessen drug-related

crimes. When drug addicts will not have easy access to illegal drugs, they will not experience the

highs or hallucinations that will drive them to commit crimes. They wouldn’t need to steal either

so they can buy drugs. Put simply, without the pushers there will be little to no users. Another one

is that offenders and culprits (manufacturers, distributors and users of illegal drugs) will be

penalized. The level of punishment that will be imposed depends on the gravity of the crime.

Knowing that there are consequences to be paid will make people think twice before embroiling

in any stage of the illegal drug trade. Lastly, war on drugs will help create a drug free environment.

A drug-free area or community may seem impossible given the present situation, but it is

achievable if everyone does their share in the fight against drugs. War on drugs should not only

involve the government and local authorities, but also friends and family of drug users or sellers.

DISADVANTAGES
 However, despite its good intentions, this drug war has led to the killing of significant

number of people, including the children. This may have achieved other government objectives

but has done nothing in terms of eliminating the drug problem. One disadvantage of this drug

war is widespread corruption. It might also provide a smokescreen to hide the real problem behind

drug abuse. A majority of the population that are easily lured into drug dealing are those within

and below the poverty line. People who have no hope of achieving very much because of their

circumstances would resort to drug dealing where knowledge and skills are not required in their

resume. They also see it as a way to make something of themselves, and to have the resources to

fund their own drug habits. This drug war also increases the risk on the lives of policemen and the

military. Missions against drug lords is no joke, considering that they too have their own army that

has no care about the lives that will be lost during a shootout or drug bust operation. Not to belittle

the skills and capacity of law enforcement, but mission against drug pushers and manufacturers

are increasingly worse. The safety risks on the lives of many policemen are also very high. It may

also further increase racial tension and make a disparity on sentencing. Opponents complain that

sentencing in drug-related crimes have major flaws. There is a huge problem in the sentencing

between possessions or trafficking of powder cocaine and crack. Judging from the differences of

the drugs in question, sentencing is definitely unfair. This drug war is a never ending chain

reaction. Drug abuse can event result to so many other problems. Thus, this is one of the issues

that the government should be alarmed of.

C. Personal reflection/ evaluation on the issue

Drugs are expensive but addiction makes it cheap. I wonder if drug users ever think of how

many kilos of rice he can buy with value of 0.1 grams of shabu or did they even think of how many

cans of sardines he can buy with a 0.1 grams of drugs. It is expensive and yet, for just a few hours
of getting high, people just wasted a months’ worth of food. When users got addicted, they now

work to feed their families, but to feed their addictions. And the cycle will continue to go on.

This drug war aims to eradicate the root causes of a bountiful social problems in our

country. It has the best intentions – to fight for drug related problems in order to provide a drug

free and peaceful environment. However, despite this aim to sweep away drug-related problems,

the reality is, it even causes more problems, sometimes even compromising human rights. Many

were killed including the innocent. And that is one thing that I don’t want to this drug war. It has

its intentions good, but the delivery of this program is very alarming. It aims to provide a drug free

environment, yet it also resorts to a more disturbed community. Personally, I am concerned of my

safety and family’s safety. There are so many what ifs every day including what if we get into a

situation where we were planted drugs but we are innocent? It’s reality. Even the innocents were

killed. Even the non-users are blamed because they are planted drugs. It is really alarming.

People commit drug addiction because of poverty, unemployment and other problems. But

what if the government focus on eradicating poverty? I guess it would be better if those that are

attributed to drug campaigns are attributed to livelihood programs that will help people fight

poverty and improve lives of individuals. Everyone would turn out to be good citizens if they are

provided with all the basic necessities to help them achieve their dreams.

Thus, for me, it is not just the duty of the government to eradicate this drug problem. It

should start with ourselves. People should be disciplined enough to enter to this kind of life

threatening situation. We should be responsible enough to work for ourselves because it is not

poverty that lead people to addiction but the lack of hope that something will come out positively.

It starts with ourselves so we get to decide if we want change.

Reporter’s Grade: 95.00%