EDITORIAL - Biggest users

Here’s one international distinction the country doesn’t want: 2.1 percent of Filipinos aged 16 to 64 use methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, putting the Philippines at the top in East Asia in the rate of shabu use. This is according to the latest United Nations World Drug Report, which noted that West African drug syndicates are now operating in the Philippines, competing with Chinese crime rings in the illegal drug trade.

Philippine anti-narcotics units have made several drug busts, from the airports to Ayala Alabang in Muntinlupa to various private homes converted into shabu laboratories in key cities around the country. Several drug mules from Africa were intercepted with shabu in recent months at the NAIA.

But the anti-drug campaign requires a sustained effort, and a continuing purge of law enforcers who are vulnerable to the huge profits from the illegal drug trade. The regular purge should include government personnel at all ports of entry. International drug rings cannot thrive without the cooperation of some of the individuals tasked to screen luggage and shipment.

Corruption is not the only problem linked to drug trafficking; it aggravates social problems and contributes to criminality. Many of the heinous crimes in this country, including rape cases and gruesome murders, were perpetrated by individuals who were found to be high on drugs. For many years now the drug of choice has been shabu, the poor man’s cocaine, which can be synthesized in a household laboratory. Drug profits have also been used to finance other illegal activities, including terrorism and human trafficking.

If shabu use in this part of the world is highest in the Philippines, it indicates weakness in law enforcement and a failure to plug the supply sources. That ranking in the UN report shows that more effort is needed to fight this scourge.