EDITORIAL - Drugs the result of skewed priorities

There is not a single day that passes that no drug-related incident is reported in the news. The stories can either be bad, as in a drug-related crime, or good, as in the arrest of a drug suspect and the confiscation of drugs. But regardless of what the stories tell, there is a common thread that runs through all of them - drugs have become such a permanent part of everyday life in the Philippines.

But it is not the regularity with which drugs are now playing a role in everyday Philippine life that is alarming. It is the glaring apathy with which the government is treating the problem. True, arrests and confiscations are made daily along with the criminal incidents that invariably are rooted in drugs. But these law enforcement victories are small.

Some of these law enforcement victories may occasionally involve millions. But considering that drugs is a multi-billion industry, a few millions are truly a drop in the bucket and may even be considered a given, you know, toss a few millions here and there just to keep everyone happy and unsuspecting. But of course there is no such thing as unsuspecting in a situation that involves the blatant and the obvious.

Even small million daily victories are a glaring indication of the real worth of the business. Those in this business are not penny-ante businessmen. They control economies and politics. If such is the case in other countries, why can it not be so in the Philippines, a country that prides itself in copying and making better copies than the originals.

Drugs probably first surfaced in the 1960s. It is not difficult to imagine how it could not have grown in strength and influence over the decades. After all, the formula is quite simple. First take over the enforcers, then the policy makers. That done, what is there to stop the proliferation? Entire countries can be taken over whole in just a matter of a few years.

It has been openly talked about how political exercises can be powered and influenced by illegal resources, prominent of which is drugs. Why the talks persist with nothing being done about them is pretty obvious it is even pathetic to continue talking about it knowing nobody and nothing will change things. That there is yet another election coming is a sad thing, in the context of these things.

And yet, strangely, it is not really the drugs that are the problem. It is the people, the Filipinos, and their skewed sense of priorities. Look at what is catching the attention of the Filipino voting public -- who is going to slap who, or who graduated with what from where. Nobody is talking about drugs and what to do about the problem in the long term. If nobody puts a finger to that problem now, there will no longer be a tomorrow to even be funny about anything.