New way to combat illegal drugs launched in August

The launch of a fresh strategy to boost Cebu City's campaign against illegal drugs has yet to wait until middle of August according to acting city police director Melvin Gayotin yesterday.

The launch has to wait as Police Inspector George Ylanan who heads both the Drug Enforcement Unit and the Vice Control Section is still pursuing post-graduate studies, aside from the delay in the issuance of search warrants against targeted personalities, Gayotin said.

In the middle of May, police claimed they were to launch here a new strategy in the campaign against illegal drugs reportedly never been used before by any other law enforcement agency in the country. Such strategy is patterned from what has been observed by the United States Drug Enforcement Unit.

As the strategy is confidential, Gayotin refused to elaborate on the details of its application. He only said that the launch hopes to reduce the problem on the proliferation of illegal drugs to a greater level.

As of May, available data revealed that although the number of pushers placed to be around 200 has reportedly decreased, police could not claim a significant development because new players would likely surface after the arrest of a certain personality.

Data also indicated that the San Nicolas Police face the most number of drug-related cases having in their jurisdiction barangays Pasil, Suba, Sawang Calero and Calamba.

Parian Police come in second because of the drug problems in barangay Lorega and Mambaling Police on third rank because of barangays Mambaling and Duljo-Fatima.

Also last May, intelligence reports revealed that the price of shabu went down from P28,000, for every five grams, in November to P16,000 early this year to only P8,000 lately.