Assessment

Consistent with their respective mandates under Republic Act 9165, the
Dangerous Drugs Board along with its member-Departments, the different drug law
enforcement agencies, and partner NGO’s have seriously pursued the conduct of
various programs and activities with the end in view of reducing both the supply of and
the demand for dangerous drugs. Still, much remains to be accomplished, given the
limited material and human resources, the lack of political will among some local
officials, the dearth in health alternatives and survival options for drug users and
pushers, and the low consciousness level of the members of the civil society on drug
issues and concerns, among others.

Over the years, bright ideas and novel initiatives on drug demand reduction have
been stunted by governmental lack of funds. Hence, the call for more non-governmental
lack of funds. Hence, the call for more non-government participation had to be made,
which resulted to a more involved private sector. Success stories have been
documented as best practices. Meanwhile, some of the Board projects have to be
shelved until the financial situation has improved.

The drugs of choice of the drug using population of the country as well as other
substances that may emerge in the future will persist to be misused and abused, the
drug abusers of today will remain to be the drug users of tomorrow, drug peddling will
open and unabated-very grim scenario of what the situation would be if the government
does not take an earnest look on its values and priorities.

Conclusion

In accordance with the global thrust to undertake a well-defined and balanced
approach towards addressing the drug problem, equal importance should be given to
both the drug supply and drug demand reduction initiatives of the government. Efforts
and resources should be exhaustively focused on the provision of alternative
development programs in marijuana-producing regions through an over-all integrated
area development and an aggressive, full blast and mass based civic awareness
campaign, since the drug problem, especially within the Philippine context, is primarily
an offshoot of an impoverished and an uninformed citizenry.

Indeed, there are no hard and fast formulas to solution of the problems that face
us specially those concerning drug use and illicit drug traffic. Yet, undoubtedly, the
success of both the drug supply and drug demand reduction programs is well anchored
on two factors: the political will of the government to tackle the problem as evidenced by
the provision of the necessary financial and manpower resources, and the community’s
willingness to cooperate with the government in this direction. Only, if and when we are
able to arrive at a healthy compromise of these two will our provision for a drug-free
Philippines be close to reality.