Drugged, dragged
MEDIUM RARE
Before President Duterte showed up to participate in PDEA’s burning of P7 billion worth of drugs last week, a previous total of P13 billion was confiscated. On Dec. 5, in Bacnotan, La Union, PDEA destroyed P60 million worth. November’s hoard was valued at P345 million.
Where are all these drugs coming from? The usual suspects, but where are they?
Last October, drug enforcement agents in California seized 2, 224 lb (1,000 kg) of meth (shabu), plus 900 lb of cocaine and 13 lb of heroin -- “enough dope to provide a dose for every man, woman, and child in the US and Mexico,” according to Timothy Shea, acting DEA chief. He said this as he stood in front of a 10-ft pyramid and warned: “Study after study shows that where there is meth addiction, there is also an uptick in violent crime.”
Our PDEA and PNP cops know this, too, after similar words have been dinned into their ears by the Commander in Chief. A pity that users are too high or too deep into the habit to care.
If crime is down as cops say, the transport of drugs is as busy as ever. Couriers dragged into the trade by poverty or desperation do not seem afraid, not of the long arm of the law nor of being attacked by the COVID-19 virus. Their merchandise is weighed and counted by the millions of pesos, yet they look as poor and miserable as rats scurrying in the dark. They are costumed in what looks like a uniform: raggedy T-shirt, filthy cargo pants, rubber or plastic beach sandals showing dirty feet.
Once caught, at a checkpoint or buy-bust, they are uniformly meek and mild, and all have the same excuse. They did not know what they were carrying, what’s the name of the supplier.
Their cargo comes in a variety of forms. Shabu, wrapped in tiny grams in sachets and in bigger packages disguised as tea packs, biscuit cans, stuffed toys, the airconditioning compartment of a container van. Dried marijuana, in bricks; otherwise entire plantations uprooted and burned.
According to DILG, marijuana’s back in favor because police checkpoints have eyes on the shabu business. Whichever, the show must go on: Once a user, next a pusher.