Marijuana now top choice of drug users — PDEA
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MANILA, Philippines — Marijuana is now the drug of choice among drug users in the country, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) revealed on Friday.
In a statement, PDEA director general Undersecretary Wilkins Villanueva said the locally grown cannabis or marijuana is now the preferred drug both on the demand and the supply side, beating erstwhile top choice methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.
“Marijuana is now the dominant drug in the country,” Villanueva said, citing massive volume seizures in 2021 and the survey result of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) in 2019.
“Although shabu is no longer the preferred drug of use, it is still considered a top drug of concern due to its more damaging effect on the minds and lives of its users, and is more profitable to drug players,” the official pointed out.
In 2021, marijuana constituted 83 percent of the reported total bulk weight of drug seizures at 11 tons, with crystal meth or “shabu” coming at far second at 17 percent, according to PDEA.
Latest available data from DDB also showed that marijuana is the most commonly abused dangerous drug at 57 percent followed by shabu at 35 percent.
Villanueva pointed out this may indicate that “interception and enforcement efforts are efficient; and cannabis cultivators and distributors are ramping up their drug trafficking activities to meet surging demand.”
The PDEA official added: “There is a growing acceptance in the marijuana drug business, and it is prudent to come up with an assessment that the supply is abundant because its demand in the market is high. When the supply is higher, the chances of detection is also higher as manifested by the high-volume marijuana confiscation by authorities.”
Increase in ecstasy smuggling
Meanwhile, the anti-drug agency also noted an increase of smuggling incidence of methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), better known as ecstasy.
Villanueva, in a separate statement, said the smuggling of the said illegal substance grew from 13,000 tablets in 2019 to 74,000 tablets in 2021, or a 460 percent increase in three years.
Based on recent interdiction operations, the supply of ecstasy comes from European countries such as Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, while ecstasy smugglers use the mail and parcel system to bring in the party drug, according to PDEA.
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