Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region
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A10 .1 Narrative summary
of drug vulnerabilities
The country’s population growth, at 2 .36
per cent, is one of the world’s highest,
almost twice the global rate of 1 .30 per cent .
Population density is 270 people per square
kilometre, however the population is unevenly
distributed throughout the islands .
Fifty-five per cent of the population lives
on the island of Luzon with the greatest
concentration in metropolitan Manila .
Poverty is a major problem and a serious
threat to stability in the Philippines (AusAID,
2004c) . The annual per capita poverty
income threshold in 2000 was PHP13,913
(about US$280) . The poverty incidence of
families was 34 .2 per cent (2000) while
that of the population was 40 per cent
(2000) or about 31 .8 million Filipinos living
below the poverty line (WHO, 2005) . The
Philippines has one of the highest levels of
income inequality in Asia, with the poorest
20 per cent of the population accounting
for only 5 per cent of the total income or
consumption (AusAID, 2004a) .
Urbanised areas are rapidly expanding,
attracting migrants from rural communities .
Young people are also vulnerable to drug
use and abuse . About 34 .65 per cent of
the population are below the age of 15
and 4 .24 per cent are above the age of 65 .
Growing population and urbanisation are
creating a ‘youth bulge’ (AusAID, 2004a) .
Historical and cultural interactions
with drugs
Opium use was first reported in the Philippines
in the 17th century . The use of opium increased
in the latter part of the 19th century as
Chinese immigrants took to the habit, something
that was tolerated by the authorities .
Opium dens were established throughout the
country and in 1903, in Manila alone, there
were an estimated 190 dens selling a total
of 130 tons of opium . By 1906, after the
United States banned opium use, there were
no legal opium dens, although this did not
stop the smuggling operations from China .
Opium provided about 4 per cent of colonial
revenue and in the end the United States
regime decided to restrict the sales to Chinese
males and registered 12,700 opium smokers .
Over time drug use declined through a mixture
of prohibitions and high prices, more so than
in other countries of the region (Reid &
Costigan, 2002) .
By the 1960s, in Manila, heroin laboratories
began operation producing small amounts
of heroin for the local market . During the
early 1970s, production of heroin increased
but local demand remained small . With the
American War in Vietnam, a steady flow of
marijuana, anti-depressants, amphetamines
and heroin arrived at the US military bases
in the Philippines . Intelligence reports at
the time estimated there were 150,000
young drug users . By the late 1970s this
dropped to around 12,000 and a period of
extreme drug suppression followed; heroin
and opiates became scarce but the use of
sedatives, tranquillisers, cough syrup and
inhalants increased substantially . In the late
1980s, methamphetamines and ephedrine
hydrochloride entered the country, mainly via
Hong Kong, and became known as shabu . It is
mainly smoked, although reports of injecting
shabu mixed with analgesic solutions have
been reported (Reid & Costigan, 2002) .
A10 .2 Prevalence of drug
use and profile of drug users
Until the completion of the National Household
Survey on the Nature and Extent of
Drug Abuse by the Dangerous Drugs Board
(DDB) for 2004, more recent estimates than
1999 are not yet available . The survey was
carried out with the general population
aged 10–44 years, with a total of 16,927
respondents being sampled . The survey
found that 1445 (8%) were users of illicit
drugs . Of this number 4 .3 per cent reported
regular use . Based on the survey results,
it was estimated 3 .4 million people were
current users of illicit drugs, 1 .8 million were
regular users, and 1 .6 million were occasional
users . As percentages of the 1999 population
(79,345,812), 4 .3 per cent were current users
of illicit drugs, 2 .2 per cent were regular
users of illicit drugs, and 2 per cent were
occasional users of illicit drugs .
The main drug of abuse is crystal methamphetamine
hydrochloride, locally known
as ‘shabu’ . Domestically grown cannabis is
the second most frequently abused drug,
followed by cough and cold preparations,
benzodiazepines and inhalants . Ecstasy is
becoming increasingly popular as a drug of
abuse (Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005) .
Records show that, in 2002, the number of
barangays (basic political unit, e .g . a
local government area) with households
having members who are drug abusers was
8 .68 per cent — 3654 of the country’s total
41,946 barangays . Metropolitan Manila
has the highest number of drug-affected
barangays among the country’s 16 regions,
with 20 per cent of its 1694 barangays .
Data collection systems in place
The Philippines Dangerous Drugs Board
(DDB) conducts the National Household
Survey on the Nature and Extent of Drug
Abuse every five years . Study sites include the
National Capital Region, Luzon, Visayas and
Mindanao with one thousand households in
each study site . The sample is drawn from
the following age brackets: 10–19 years,
20–29 years, 30–44 years . Simple random
sampling is used .
The Integrated Drug Abuse Drug Information
Network (IDADIN) is a project implemented by
the DDB in collaboration with the Philippine
Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the
National Centre for Mental Health, in support
of the UNODC F-97 regional project, ‘Improving
ATS Data and Information Systems’ . The
IDADIN aims to establish an infrastructure for
better understanding of the patterns of ATS in
the region and for exchanging data pertinent
to ATS abuse prevention and control . Eight
countries including the Philippines are signatories
to the Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) regarding the implementation of the
project at the national level . The other MOU
countries include Cambodia, China, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia .
The regional centre of the project is based
in Bangkok, Thailand . Major data providers
of IDADIN are:
• National Poison Control Center, Philippine
General Hospital (national data on mortality
and morbity)
• Tondo General Hospital Detoxification
Unit (national data on mortality and
morbidity)
• East Avenue Medical Center Detoxification
Unit (national data on mortality and
morbidity)
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Country profiles: Philippines