Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region
234
• Detoxification Unit, National Center for
Mental Health, Mandaluyong City (mortality/morbidity
data)
• Therapeutic Community Center, Bureau
of Corrections, National Bilibid Prisons
(national treatment data)
• Bureau of Jail Management and Penology
(national law enforcement data on drugrelated
cases)
• Dangerous Drugs Board (national treatment/research
data/best practices)
• Addictus Philippines (NGO/ research data)
• PNP Drug Laboratory
• Kill Droga (NGO best practices) .
Using standardised data collection forms,
major data providers report their data on
an established schedule to the Dangerous
Drugs Board Integrated Drug Abuse Data and
Information Network (DDB IDADIN), which
collects and collates the data and submits the
results to the UNODC Regional Centre .
The Integrated Central Case Registry and
Monitoring System (ICCRMS) provides a
monitoring system for outpatient and residential
drug treatment facilities .
Surveys of youth from geographic areas with
high levels of ATS use have been carried
out as part of a rapid assessment study
(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,
2003d) . The DDB and UNODC conducted
a rapid assessment to measure the extent
of knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of
Filipino youth on ATS abuse .
A10 .3 Drug supply, production,
availability, cost and trade
Crystal methamphetamine
hydrochloride — shabu
Historically shabu was imported into the
Philippines (United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, 2003a) . Since 1997, the
Philippines has been considered a methamphetamine
HCl producer . The discovery
of a clandestine shabu laboratory in the
northern area of the country in 1997
validated the shift from trafficking crystal
methamphetamine to manufacturing the
drug in the country (Dangerous Drugs Board,
2005; United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime, 2003a) . There are various reasons
for the relatively new shift to local production,
namely: (1) the simplicity of processing
ephedrine into shabu; (2) the crackdown on
production facilities and processed methamphetamine
HCl in other source countries;
and (3) the reduced risk associated with
trafficking precursor (ephedrine) compared
to shabu (United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, 2003a) .
Cannabis
Wild growth of cannabis occurs in the
mountainous regions in the Philippines .
Its availability in the drug market can be
estimated from the increase in cultivation sites
and continuous seizures of large quantities
of the drug (Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005) .
Data from UNODC (United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, 2003a) state that in 1972
there were nine identified cannabis cultivation
sites whereas today the number of sites has
increased to 120, located in nine regions of
the country .
There are no documented reports of clandestine
hashish laboratories; however, there have
been seizures of the drug in the drug market
(Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005) . Cannabis
sales are estimated to generate about $900
million per year (United States Department
of State, Bureau for International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs, 2003) . Cannabis
is generally cultivated in areas that are
inaccessible by vehicles, and/or controlled by
insurgent groups (United States Department
of State, Bureau for International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs, 2003) .
Precursors and essential chemicals
The Philippines does not produce or manufacture
ephedrine, nor legally import it in
large quantities for licit pharmaceuticals
(Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005) . The
Ma-hung plant (Ephedra equisetina), the
source of ephedrine, grows naturally in
China, India, Pakistan and Nepal . It is
assumed that the bulk of the ephedrine
seized in various clandestine laboratories has
been illegally imported . Some uncontrolled
locally produced chemicals found in clandestine
laboratories are alleged to have been
acquired from legal wholesalers/retailers
(Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005) .
Availability
According to drug user self-reports the
availability of shabu and cannabis is similar,
with 26 per cent and 28 per cent of users
indicating these drugs were easy to obtain
(see Table A10 .1) (United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime, 2003d) . In contrast,
5 per cent of users rated ecstasy as easy
to obtain . Shabu is typically sold in sachet
packets at 100 peso per sachet . Ecstasy pills
or capsules were usually sold at around 800
pesos with prices ranging from 500 to 2000
peso (United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime, 2003d) .
Table A10 .1 . Availability ratings for ecstasy, shabu and cannabis
by survey respondents, Philippines
How difficult is it to get
the following drugs (n = 280) Ecstasy Shabu Cannabis
% Impossible 20 7 6
% Difficult 20 32 26
% Easy 5 26 28
% No response 56 45 40
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003d
235
Country profiles: Philippines