I think I really like the way the drug problem is being dealt with in the Philippines. Three million out of the population of 102 Million are druggies. Most of the druggies are also pushers.
The whole reason why those at the top of the chain make sure that there are so many addicts is because drugs are big and easy money. The top make a fortune out of the bottom stealing and hurting others in order to get the money to feed the addiction which in turn feeds those Billionaire drug lords at the top.
Whole areas, whole communities, are blighted by the drug problem.
In June, President Rodrigo Duterte came to power with a mandate to do something radical to save his country from drugs.
Well, it is more than somewhat radical. Basically, those who supply drugs are being targeted by paid assassins and shot dead. Yes, shot dead.
Those who use drugs, and so therefore steal and hurt people to pay for the drugs, are also being shot dead.
So, both the suppliers and the users are slowly being wiped out. By being shot dead.
Now, I kinda ‘get’ the idea behind this. If you try to remove the druggies, there are always more to follow. If you try to remove the pushers and dealers, the demand is still there and so new dealers spring up to take their place. The logic is that you need to remove both the users and the suppliers at exactly the same time.
And that’s what is happening.
Not all druggies are being killed. Some are given the opportunity to give themselves up and go to overcrowded prisons (so full they have to take turns sleeping), or on one of the limited rehabilitation programs. The biggest rehab program includes making them work to build coffins for the mounting collection of bodies. Some are told they have two choices: On the outside making the coffin, or, on the inside buried in it.
It’s bleak. It’s barbaric. It’s inhumane. It breaks all the laws on human rights.
But, it’s working. It, the campaign of ‘extrajudicial’ killing, has a nearly 85% approval rating from those whose lives have been all but destroyed by their neighbourhood being overrun by drug gangs and druggies.
Bit by bit, the ordinary population are starting to feel they have hope and are getting their lives back.
It’s a policy not liked by the likes of President Obama and, well, most of the leaders of the rest of the world. When Obama spoke out about it, Duterte basically told Obama to ‘go to hell’. Good for him.
Ok, so there probably is a better way to eradicate the drugs problem. However, not one country on this planet seems to have managed it the softly softly luvvie way. The Filipino assassins, drawn from the ordinary population just wanting to make a living, have killed over 3,000 specifically targeted since June. They get £100 for each confirmed corpse. So, at least the druggies and pushers, in their death, are keeping ordinary families fed as well as getting their neighbourhood back. It seems a win-win to me.
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