The ‘drug problem:’ Unserious political attention to a serious issue

IT has become fashionable, since the entry of Davao City Mayor and self-styled crime-buster Rodrigo Duterte into the presidential race, for politicians at all levels to liberally sprinkle their public comments with references to the “terrible” and “out of control” epidemic of illegal drug distribution and use, and the crimes that result from the lucrative illicit trade.

Senator and presidential aspirant Grace Poe-Llamanzares, in her capacity as head of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, even went so far as to claim that politicians are funding their election campaigns with money from drug operations.