ILOILO City – Due to the dwindling supply of methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly known as shabu, drug pushers may be shifting to marijuana.
This was the assessment of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 director Alex Tablate, citing previous arrests of drug pushers who yielded dried marijuana leaves.
“Marijuana becoming an alternative to shabu is a possibility. Drug pushers are now feeling the effect of our massive campaign against drug trafficking,” said Tablate.
Marijuana is also easy to dispose as it is cheaper, added Tablate.
On July 19 18-year-old Clint Legaspi of Barangay Sinikway, La Paz district was arrested in a police operation in Barangay Katilingban, Molo district after selling dried marijuana leaves to a police poseur-buyer for P2,500.
The suspect claimed he was forced to sell marijuana because his wife was hospitalized after giving birth to their child.
The cultivation and use of marijuana is illegal under Republic Act (RA) 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
As the Philippines is a signatory to the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, which limits its use to medical and scientific purposes.
According to PDEA, marijuana is the second most used drug in the Philippines, after shabu.
Marijuana has been illegal in the Philippines since 1972 by virtue of Republic Act 6425, or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972.
RA 6425 classified marijuana as a prohibited drug, and detailed out punishments for the importation, sale, manufacture, cultivation, possession, and use of the drug, as well as possession of any drug-related paraphernalia.
RA 6425 also created the Dangerous Drugs Board, giving it jurisdiction over drug-related cases.
In 2002, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 was signed, repealing RA 6425.
RA 9165 also enabled the creation of PDEA, which handles the implementation and enforcement of policies and strategies made by the Dangerous Drugs Board.
Under the current law, the importation, sale, maintenance of a den, dive or resort, manufacture, use, and cultivation of marijuana and marijuana-related products shall be met with life imprisonment and a fine./PN
