Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region 236 Drug seizures Since 1997, Philippine law enforcement has dismantled 32 laboratories; a total of 2057 .21 kilograms of shabu were recovered (Figure A10 .1) . In 2004, combined law enforcement agency efforts conducted 24,778 anti-drug operations (Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005) . The operations resulted in the seizure of illicit drugs worth P10 .781 billion (approx . 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1997 1998 1999 2001 AU$250 million), precursor chemicals were valued at P9 .406 billion (approx . AU$215 million), and equipment worth P5 .165 million (approx . AU$118,000) . Methamphetamine HCl accounted for 23 per cent of the overall value of the drugs seized (3676 kg valued at P7 billion) (approx . AU$160,000) and cannabis products worth P428 million (approx . AU$9 million) . Table A10 .2 shows statistics for drugs seized within the Philippines in 2004 . Figure A10 .1 . Number of dismantled drug laboratories in Philippines, 1997–2004 Source: Data received from Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005 2002 2003 2004 Drug trade Table A10 .2 . Seizures of illicit drugs in Philippines, 2004 Drug Quantity Methamphetamine HCl/shabu 11,001,795 grams Cannabis plants 1,948,999 pcs Cannabis seedlings 433,054 pcs Cannabis seeds 5215 grams Cannabis dried leaves 827,250 grams Hashish 200 grams Ecstasy 103 pcs Cocaine 2421 grams Opium poppy 9000 grams Source: Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005 The Philippines serves as a transit point for and producer of crystal methamphetamine and cannabis . According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Centre and the Dangerous Drugs Board, methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) is imported into the country through four main avenues: • seaports, concealed in container vans or stashed inside cargoes • international airports, the preferred trafficking avenue for small quantities (less than 1 kilogram to multi-kilogram shipments) using false compartments in luggage or through body packing • mail and parcel services, preferred in foreign destinations that have large Filipino communities like Guam, the United States, Australia, England and the Middle East • Philippine coastlines, the area where most of the huge shipments of both finished products and raw material (precursors) are imported . Shabu is imported into the Philippines through the shorelines of Northern Luzon, Central Luzon (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Centre, 2003), and Southern Tagalog regions, specifically the provinces of Batanes, Cagayan, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, Zambales, Aurora, Quezon and Mindoro . The report also lists Masbate, Palawan, Sorsogon, South Cotabato, Davao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi as potential sites for shabu smuggling . The Philippines also serves as a transhipment point for further export of shabu to Japan, Australia, Korea, the United States, Guam and Saipan (Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003a) . Cannabis Most of the cannabis produced in the Philippines is consumed locally, with the remainder exported to Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Europe (Dangerous Drugs Board, 2005; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003a) . 237 Country profiles: Philippines
Page 1 and 2:
situational analysis of illicit dru
Page 3 and 4:
© Australian National Council on D
Page 5 and 6:
Situational analysis of illicit dru
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82: Situational analysis of illicit dru
Page 131: Situational analysis of illicit dru
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215:
show all

Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?