Netnet Camomot
ANY family with a member addicted to drugs must be going mad by now as they wait for the police to knock on the door and convince the drug user to surrender.
And thanks to the surrenderees, authorities now have a list of self-confessed drug addicts. Like as if no one knows the who's who in the barangay when it comes to drugs, huh?
The mentally unstable brain of a drug user is enough to stop his neighbors from telling on him. They want to keep the peace between them and the drug user, and if it entails remaining silent, so be it.
The deafening silence encourages drug addiction to go forth and multiply, and the drug lord is the happiest of them all as his sales increase along with the demand from drug addicts now dependent on his supply.
The wisest drug lord is supposed to be the one who doesn't use drugs at all. He’s simply in the trade for the money, and one of his objectives is to pay off authorities who try to stop his business from setting up branches all over Pinas.
Oh, wait, he can't have outlets in every corner of the country, for he has to respect the boundaries of territories already claimed by other drug lords who can be more powerful than him due to, hmmm, connections. The higher the connection, the more power.
Like the barangay captain who will think twice before meddling into other barangays' troubles, the drug lord also has to be aware of territorial limits. Yup, buti pa ang tourist, may visa.
The drug lord who uses drugs will eventually lose his mind until he becomes careless in his deals and can no longer maintain the business he’s in. That’s why the need to keep his hands on drug sales and off drugs.
He should also warn his staff from using the stuff, for a praning employee is more dangerous than the security guard who sleeps on the job.
Shabu is sold following the Philippine custom of tingi-tingi. The sari-sari store is not selling it yet, but the barangay's drug pushers have small sachets in their pockets selling at, hmmm, P50 each? Or is it P20 now?
There’s this TV ad for ice cream where it compares what you can buy with P20. Well, not much. Thus, the ad suggests, better buy the ice cream cone. I gotta feeling the advertisers were tempted to include shabu there in the comparisons section but of course did not, due to this thing called delicadeza.
Drugs is a sensitive issue, most people talk about it in hushed tones. There’s this unwritten rule to keep your mouth shut. Once the drug user starts stealing money and things so he can continue his hard habit to break, will you still sit in one corner and wait for the moment to pass? Especially if you're the one he’s stealing from?
There will be threats for you to give money or else. And if you don’t want the situation to regress to “or else,” you give the money, hoping the user will use it for his fare to Siberia or the North Pole, South Pole, who cares where he'll go! As long as he stays out forever and ever.
There are families who are not heaving deep sighs of relief despite the surrender of their addicted members. For they know the addiction will continue anyway. Like the Energizer Bunny--it goes on and on and on.
Rehabilitation may stop them from using unless drugs are sold inside the rehab center. Once they’re out in the, uh, free world, they may behave for a while, and feel free to count with your fingers the number of days they'll avoid their suki pusher, but then, there's the craving again for the high only drugs can bring, and there they go again.
Vicious cycle: drugs, rehab, drugs, rehab...
Surrender? Seeing photos of surrenderrees reminds me of potential voters registering at Comelec's satellite centers in malls.
But it changes the vicious cycle: drugs, surrender, drugs, hmmm...
The surrender of drug users has become a trend. I'm even waiting for a surrenderree to post a selfie on Facebook, with the caption, Surrendered! Complete with a photo of his pee in a plastic container, the drug test's positive result, his oathtaking, Zumba session, plus fireworks and applause. Yay!
I wonder what the oath says. Let's see. How about this: I promise to do my duty as a surrenderree.
And what’s his duty? To refrain from using drugs. If only it's as easy as avoiding chocolates. Or cigarettes. Or booze.
It’s called an addiction because you’re addicted, you can't stop yourself from indulging. You need professional help if you’re serious enough in your goal to stop the addiction.
For chocolates, don’t buy any. For cigarettes, quit cold turkey. For booze, rehab. But what works for one addict may not work for the other.
At least drugs are illegal and are not available everywhere. Unlike chocolates, cigarettes and booze which you can buy from the sari-sari store, thus, harder to avoid.
Drugs, on the other hand, are hidden from public view. The user has to hide whenever he’s into suyop-pa-more mode, but still, the scenario where it's taken doesn't prevent the addiction from worsening, no matter the length of time he has to stay inside closed doors once the praning phase starts to kick in. Besides, the more he needs drugs to help him forget his praning thoughts.
Drug addiction is a chicken-or-the-egg thing: Which came first, the drug lord or the drug user? The drug lord has to find another source of income if no one is buying his shabu. And the drug user has to find another hard habit to break if there's no shabu.
So, who should you stop first, the drug lord or the user? Since the user will continue to be addicted for as long as there's shabu in the market. And the drug lord will continue to sell for as long as there's demand for his supply.
One more query: Which is easier to stop--the craving for money or the craving for a high? Confusing, eh?
Drugs are supposed to be easy money. But I don't think so. You will need an armed and well-informed posse to maintain your drug business. You won't have peace of mind. You will be as praning as the drug user even if you're not using. Kind of you can't pay off or annihilate all people all the time. There are more than 100 million Pinoys, add to that the foreigners you deal with. How to control all of them?
Every person becomes a suspect in your eyes. You won't be able to trust anyone anymore. Love went out the window the moment you started selling drugs, through the families the drugs have broken, through crimes the drugs have made possible, through the graft and corruption the drugs have encouraged.
So, there's the question again. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Meanwhile, have breakfast with your family. Have some sunny side up. Or an omelette, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs. You know, stop the egg from morphing into a chicken.
