Asia:
More
Reefer
Madness
from
the
Philippines
8/19/05
Hysteria over marijuana has been commonplace in the Philippines for years, and some remarks this week by Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon are a fine example of Reefer Madness at its most deluded. Not only did de Leon elaborate a version of the discredited "gateway theory", he also made the novel claim that marijuana is so toxic nothing can be grown on soil where it has been cultivated. De Leon did, however, reject the idea of poisoning methamphetamine users -- although for a quite curious and disturbing reason. De Leon's remarks came during a press opportunity as he visited Dumaguete City and in the context of a discussion over whether marijuana cultivation could be stamped out by helping farmers plant a substitute crop, coffee. The PNP was studying the idea, de Leon said, and was looking at what varieties would grow in areas formerly planted with pot. As quoted by the Philippines internet news portal INQ7 Express, de Leon claimed: "Marijuana is so toxic that after the soil is planted to it, no other crop can grow there," laying waste both to agricultural science and logical consistency in one fell swoop. There is no evidence that marijuana is "toxic" to soil. And if it were, why would the PNP be considering a crop substitution program that was doomed to failure? De Leon also told reporters marijuana use was on the rise because of local shortages of methamphetamines. But once again demonstrating that consistency, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once put it, is "the hobgoblin of small minds," de Leon also warned that marijuana users were likely to graduate to meth, or "shabu" in the local parlance. In any event, the herb should not be legalized or decriminalized, as City Councilor Noel de Jesus, a physician, has suggested. In November de Jesus called for decriminalization of marijuana for use and possession. But de Leon was having none of that. "I am happy that the law does not allow us the cultivation or use of marijuana," he said. At least the high ranking PNP official frowned on suggestions being floated that one way to stop shabu use was to mix it with poison and sell the lethal concoction to consumers. He could not support that, he said. "That will not be fair to drug users because some users are victims. Some users do not even want to take drugs but do so without knowing it," he said. By implication, poisoning drug users would be okay if only the PNP could ensure that the tiny fraction of those unknowingly "dosed" would not be affected.
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