Listening exercise

By Netnet Camomot

AS expected, Vice President Leni Robredo is now assured of an almost daily media exposure, thanks to her acceptance of the appointment as “drug czar.” If she runs and wins as president in 2022, she has President Rody Duterte to thank for the opportunity.

She had her first meeting with her anti-drug minions, er, with the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (Icad) last Friday. In her opening statement, she said, “I would like to believe that, despite our differences, iisa lang naman ’yong hangarin natin at ang hangarin natin maging matagumpay ’yong kampanya laban sa ilegal na droga.”

She said that the meeting was a “listening exercise” for her because she wanted to know where to start and “for all the clusters to brief me on what has transpired during the… little over two years.” 

“I’ve always been very vocal about my opposition against the killings that accompanied Operation Tokhang,” she added. “’Yong sa akin, ’yong pagkakatok, pag-se-search, okay ’yon. Pero because of the many senseless killings that accompanied Operation Tokhang, parang naka-reach siya ng certain level of notoriety na ’pag sinabing Tokhang, it is a war against the poor. 

“I think it is incumbent upon us na mabago ’yong kaisipan na ’yon… Naniniwala ako na sa lahat na police operations, anything can happen… Pero ’yong sa akin, ’pag nagkakaroon kasi ng mga senseless killings, na-di-diminish ’yong mga pagod na ibinubuhos natin dito.”

And here’s Philippine Daily Inquirer’s (PDI) “Faces of the News” comment on Robredo’s first meeting with Icad: “Until when the pleasantries will last remains to be seen.”

Robredo was her usual calm and soft-spoken self while delivering her opening statement, she sounded like she wasn’t talking about the war on drugs.

Drug cartels are the Goliaths in the illegal drug industry. So, Robredo must be the David in this war.

Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron Aquino has invited Robredo to join drug raids: “I gave her an invitation so she’ll know that what she’s saying that nobody should die in anti-illegal drug operations is impossible… She does not understand what goes on in those operations. There will be casualties especially if the enemy is armed and dangerous. The possibility of encounters is high” (“PDEA, Palace dare Leni to join drug raids,” PDI, 11/11/19). 

The illegal drug industry is not exactly a chicken-and-egg story since it’s so clear. Which came first, the drug lord or the drug user? To make it clearer, here’s another question: Which came first, the supply or the demand? 

Illegal drugs are not a basic need. A person won’t crave for, say, shabu if it has not been invented yet. But he will crave for food when he’s hungry. 

Urban Dictionary describes tough love as “an excuse domineering people use to rationalize abusing others.” Haha! Here’s the better definition: “Promotion of a person’s welfare, especially that of an addict, child, or criminal, by enforcing certain constraints on them, or requiring them to take responsibility for their actions” (lexico.com).

Drug users need tough love. That’s why a family of a drug addict will do an intervention with the hope they can convince him to voluntarily enter a drug rehabilitation center. Operative word: voluntarily. That means he has accepted the fact that he’s already an addict. Without that acceptance, he will continue to be in denial and will return to his hard habit to break once he’s out of the rehab center. 

Prevention is the secret behind freedom from illegal drugs. Just don’t. Don’t try. Don’t start. Because once you’re addicted, you will become a recovering addict forevermore.

Well, buti pa ang smoking, may minimum age for smokers; ang illegal-drug use, wala! 

For now, a Pinoy has to be 18 years old before he can start smoking. I wonder what the minimum age was in nineteen-forgotten when I had my first cigarette at the age of… I wasn’t even a teenager then. Oops!

The Philippine Society of Medical Oncology wants for Pinas to follow the United Nations’ recommendation for the minimum age to be 21 years old. And I can almost hear the huffing and puffing senior-citizen smoker say, Hay salamat, dili 100.

A hundred years old, that is, as proposed by Hawaii Democratic state representative Richard Creagan, who’s a doctor. His proposal suggested a gradual rise in the minimum age, though: “30 in 2020, 40 in 2021, 50 in 2022, 60 in 2023, and then jump from 60 to 100 in 2024” (“Hawaii to consider raising minimum smoking age to 100 in bid to phase out cigarette sales,” independent.co.uk, 2/5/19).

People should not have invented or manufactured anything that could harm themselves and other people. But there’s drugs and cigarettes and processed food. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III meant well when he suggested for salt to be taxed. But the Pinoy complained, and Duque had to explain: “I don’t agree that we should tax daing, tuyo, bagoong but there must be some kind of a starting point—siguro yung mga talagang very low or zero nutritional value.” 

Oh. Did he mean that daing, tuyo, and bagoong have nutritional value? Yay! Bagoong with kare-kare. Yum!

Good health requires moderation—a little of everything—so you won’t feel deprived.

Drug addiction, however, starts with a little, thus, it should never have a part in living a life of moderation.

But with marijuana now legal in some countries and US states, please define drug addiction.