CEBU, Philippines - A survey that yielded Central Visayas as having the most number of drug users also revealed that the region has the lowest drop of drug users.
The survey was conducted by the Philippine Normal University and the Dangerous Drug Board on 12,730 respondents from 16 regions, 30 provinces, and 190 barangays.
DDB Undersecretary Clarence Paul Oaminal said notable findings on the survey revealed that out of the 932 respondents who have tried drugs, 748 or 80.26 percent opted to stop. One fifth of this number or 20.59 percent come from Region 7. This was followed by Region six with 12.30 percent and Region 10 with 10.70 percent. He said the data simply proves that the anti-illegal drugs programs implemented in these areas have been effective.
“We could fairly conclude that this shows that the effort done to stop the rampant use of drugs is paying of,” Oaminal said.
Oaminal said majority of those that ceased from using drugs did not necessarily stop because they were caught doing so but “because of their own realization that drugs are not doing any good to them.” He said that this shows that people are becoming more aware of the negative effects of using drugs. Oaminal said these findings have encouraged DDB to work harder in curbing the problem of using illegal drugs. — AJ A. de la Torre/JMO