_{They are slaughtering us like animals - CREDIT: Daniel Berehulak}

That's right. I said it, and I stand behind it. The war on drugs is an embarrassment to The Philippines.

Did i hurt your feelings? Time to wise up shmuck.

The war on drugs exists for 2 reasons.

Reason 1

...and the reason that it is able to be supported by the ignorant masses, is that it is used as a universal excuse for crimes committed within our country.

The father raped his months old daughter with his friends because he was on drugs.

I'm sorry people, but seriously, shut the fuck up. Drugs are not an excuse for their actions, they were clearly seriously disturbed and pardon my french, but seriously fucked up! Using the use of drugs as an excuse for the behavior is beyond shameful, it's stupid.

At the time of writing this post there are over 7.6 Billion people in the world. According to surveys over 35% of the global population has used drugs. That's 2,660,000,000 or 2.6 BILLION people. Have 2.6 billion people raped their months old daughter? NO!

Drug users are dangerous and they kill and rape people and steal from others.

Ok. Filipinos eat rice. Does eating rice mean you are Filipino? Does being Filipino mean you eat rice? NO!

It's easy to create analogies and draw parallels, I'm sure everybody reading this has seen at one point in their lives some ridiculous post shared on Facebook thousands to millions of times with a ridiculous parallel drawn attempting to sell some ideology that is pure hogwash.

According to official government surveys, over 1 million filipinas are prostitutes, and prostitution is illegal in The Philippines. This does not include those that are former prostitutes, and ONLY includes females. The Philippines only has just over 100 Million people, including children and the elderly, and of course males. That means that WELL over 1% of filipinas are prostitutes, a percent MUCH higher than almost all non-african countries. Take into account the separation of male/female exclude children (except minors involved in prostitution), and include retired prostitutes, that number quickly increases exponentially.

Does being filipina mean that you are a prostitute? NO!

Are you starting to see the type or ridiculousness here? We can compare statistics and assign them however we want to further justify our own political means. The war on drugs is a smoke screen and the people are too stupid, ignorant, apathetic, or afraid to say something, do something, lest they end up dead and labeled a drug user/pusher.

Being under the influence is NEVER an excuse for bad behavior.

It may have influenced you to do things you otherwise would not have done, sure. Alcohol does that too. Caffeine does that too. They're both legal and much more commonly abused. So do me, do yourself, do our country a favor. Stop allowing people that commit heinous acts the excuse that they were on drugs.

It is not the drugs fault. It's their fault. They did the drugs voluntarily, and they were predisposed to that type of behavior. The drugs (depending on what drugs of course) simply reduced their inhibitions a bit.

If we can't accept responsibility for our own actions, the actions of our people, and our own culture then who are we? We are nothing. We are plastic, we are fake, we are a poor example of humanity. Shame on you, shame on us, shame on our nation if this is how we act.

Fun Fact!

The war on drugs has not decreased crimes within our country. It's increased it, but now the police, politicians, and military are offenders. Yay Us! We've turned our defenders, those that are suppose to serve and protect us, into a quite literal organized crime organization. We're so smart...* We're idiots.

Reason 2

...Politics, Power, Money. Launching a war on drugs allows those in power and officially supported the backing required to take control that otherwise could not be had. It's a power struggle all about money. That's right, this war on drugs is a means to put money in the hands of those that were unable to obtain it otherwise.

Gangs are most typically formed as a means to protect a neighborhood when the official government is not doing it's job properly. "Wow!" you may think as you recall the numerous gangs/fraternities that you know of and have encountered throughout your life. That's right... they are typically created to protect. The communities typically initially support and are a part of these organizations.

The government launching a war on drugs allows it to regulate (with the guise of battling a war) the drug flow off the books. We have seen this in the news, police and other officials planting drugs, shooting first, and all of the deaths in our own neighborhoods of those we knew had nothing to do with drugs in the first place but were found with heads and bodies wrapped in packing tape and signs dropped on them 'drug pusher ako'.

Essentially it allows the criminals within the government to redistribute power in a way that is suiting to them, cutting out those that may have previously have been supported by their communities.

This is not to say that drug users/pushers are in general supported by their communities. Typically they are not, but they're usually more socially accepted than their government counterparts. There is an honor code that even these criminals follow, that the government's counterparts do not.

THE SOLUTION

As proven time and time again, no war on drugs is ever successful to actually curb drugs. Launching a war on drugs does nothing but kill the unlucky and drive the price of said drugs up. The users will still use, particularly if they have chemical addictions. They just more heavily line the pockets of the distributors which actually increases the value of importing and distributing drugs, rather than decreasing it.

So how do we actually solve the issue?

Step 1. Understand that drug use is typically something that needs help, not incarceration or death.

Rehab, and I mean actual rehab not mandatory zumba... that's beyond stupid, for users that want to quit. Arresting and/or killing someone strikes fear into a person which in others promotes rebellion and hate further promoting violence. This doesn't actually solve any problem, fear tactics are for the weak minded. Are we filipinos weak minded?

Step 2. Understand what drugs do what to individuals and WHY they should be legal/illegal.

Drugs such as marijuana are illegal for ridiculous reasons and have higher penalties than things such as shabu which have much more harmful effects on the individuals that use the drug, as well as those around them. Educate the population on these facts, without political leans, just facts.

Step 3. Legalize * REGULATE

Yes, i put 'regulate' in all caps on purpose. Billions of pesos would be able to be taxed, drug dealers (the actual act of buying/dealing is the most dangerous part of drugs) are eliminated, replaced by reputable and regulated shops/stores such as 711 or dispensaries.

If we eliminate the illegality of the substances, this essentially cuts the criminals of the industry out of the picture entirely. We are then left only with those that act irrationally while using said drugs, same as we already have for those that are drunk on alcohol. Crime decreases drastically, corruption decreases drastically, police are able to focus more on serving and protecting, rather than murdering of innocent pregnant women and children through their pointless child-like war.

Please. I ask of you, Filipinos, and the foreign community at large. SHINE A LIGHT on these truths. Stop accepting and defending the company line. Stop being stupid. Stop letting our people die. Stop supporting murderers. Insist on a true democracy. Insist on truth. Insist that we are better than this....