PNP quizzes Callamard: How to address drug problem?

Bea Cupin

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PNP quizzes Callamard: How to address drug problem?

AFP

The United Nations has released several documents advocating for a ‘rights-based’ approach to curbing illegal drugs

MANILA, Philippines – “Then what is their better ways?”

After being told that a punitive approach to illegal drugs only worsens the problem, the Philippine National Police (PNP) quizzed United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard on what sort of approach she recommends in addressing the country’s drug problem.

“What would she recommend on how to address the drug problem with an estimate of 4M people hooked on illegal drugs? Then what is their better ways?” asked PNP spokesman Dionardo Carlos when asked to react to Callamard’s statements during a forum on drug policies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City on Friday, May 5.

Defending the Philippine government’s drug policy, Carlos said: “The ways of the PNP is to reach out to the drug offenders (users and pushers) and offer the avenue to change thru Project Tokhang resulting [in] 1,266,966 surrenderers in a nation with an estimate of 4M drug users.”

He added: “The PH government through its DOH [Department of Health] and DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and Development] extend all possible help to allow these drug addicts to be treated and rehabilitated either by community-based wellness and rehab programs or treatment in drug rehab facilities. This is just in a span of 8 months.”

“I hope they look at the ICAD and the NADPA which will show what is the policy and direction of the government to address the drug problem,” concluded Carlos, referring to the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs and the National Anti-Drug Plan of Action.

Callamard, the UN’s expert on summary executions, is in the country for an academic visit.

She told reporters she was here solely to attend the two-day forum in Diliman.

Callamard had been invited to make an official visit to the country – during which she would investigate allegations of human rights violations – but this apparently fell through after the government put several conditions.

Although President Rodrigo Duterte’s top aides, including his health secretary and the Dangerous Drugs Board chairman, have said that illegal drugs are both a health and peace and order issue, Duterte himself has called drug addicts “zombies.” He has also said that drug suspects and other criminals and “not human.”

During her keynote, Callamard said a “war on drugs approach does not work.”

Citing the outcome of a 2016 United Nations meeting on dealing with the world drug problem, Callamard called on a policy that “placed great emphasis on rights, health, and justice.”

A 2016 recent meeting among government leaders resulted in a 800-page document detailing recommended anti-drug policies. A 21-page summary of a resolution adopted during an April 19, 2016 general assembly is also available here.

During the same forum, neuropsychopharmacology expert Dr Carl Hart from Columbia University noted that “police officers are not qualified to do drug education.”

Hart said that expecting police to solve the drug problem is “unfair.”

“Many of these issue are way beyond their expertise,” said Hart, who specializes in understanding how people react to drug use and addiction.

In the Philippines, it’s the PNP who has taken on a lead role in the campaign against illegal drugs. All policies are supposed to go through the DDB and its implementation arm, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which is supposed to oversee all anti-illegal drugs operations. – Rappler.com

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Bea Cupin

Bea is a senior multimedia reporter who covers national politics. She's been a journalist since 2011 and has written about Congress, the national police, and the Liberal Party for Rappler.