The Drug Flood

March 24, 2019 Opinion Sideglance

As this was being written, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had just successfully confiscated 276 kilograms of m e t h a m p h e t a m i n e hydrochloride or ‘shabu’ as it is more commonly called at the Manila International Container Port and estimated to be worth 11.8 billion pesos in its street value.

Not to downplay the continuing achievements made by the PDEA and other agencies of the government such as the Bureau of Customs because indeed, such successful drug seizures can only mean that the multi-pronged approach and strategy of the war on drugs is definitely producing positive results, but on a more sobering note we must express alarm at the stupendously huge volume of illegal drugs such as ‘shabu’ making its way into the country.

We now must understand that in the illicit industry of manufacturing and distributing addictive substances the matter of demand is usually relegated to the back-burner when supply is readily available and capitalizing instead on the instant-hooked effect of the drug.

By literally flooding the prospective market with their illegal product the manufacturers and distributors are simply relying on the addictive effect of their illegal drug to ensnare their clients or customers.

It becomes a simple process of producing a constant and huge amount of illegal drugs that lead to cheaper prices which makes it more accessible to those regular users and those wanting to experiment with them and then finally an increasing number of addicted individuals that are totally dependent on the next supply for their ‘high’.

A vicious cycle that is currently being taken advantage of by big drug syndicates in the South East Asian region.

Just take a look at a portion of a report by Tom Allard of Reuters which came out in February of this year titled: “Meth ‘disaster ’ for Asia-Pacific region as seizures surge tenfold in Thailand”, the report states that: “By flooding Thailand and other countries with meth, organized crime groups have “generated new users” by enticing them with lower prices, Niyom said.

The users then become dependent on the highly addictive drug, creating a bigger market for the product.” The report also states that: “Seizures of high-purity crystal methamphetamine have surged more than tenfold in Thailand over the past two years, statistics show, a stark indicator of the growth in industrial-scale production of the stimulant in neighboring Myanmar ,” and finally, “Thailand is a major trafficking route for crystal meth manufactured in Myanmar’s Shan and Kachin states, where police say Asian organized crime groups have allied with local pro-government militias and armed rebels to set-up “superlabs.

Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle — which encompasses northern Myanmar and parts of Laos and Thailand — has long been a hub of illicit drug trafficking.” And there it is, Asian organized crime groups setting up ‘superlabs’ in Myanmar to produce tons and tons of methamphetamine known as ‘Yaba’ in pill form and crystal methamphetamine known as ‘ice or shabu’ which is the familiar one in the country.

Now here is the clincher in that report, “Meth from Myanmar has also been found smuggled in shipping containers in the Philippines and Malaysia.” This was also recently confirmed by no less than PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino when he said that the almost 2 billion worth of drugs recently confiscated in a Cavite warehouse were from the “Golden Triangle” in the border of Laos, Thailand and
Myanmar.

Make no mistake about it the drug flood is starting to inundate the country, it’s time to pull our heads out of the sand and confront the problem head on.