War on Drugs: A Case Study From a Modern Perspective (article 5 of 5)

Taking Action Against Organized Criminals

So how can they be stopped? They have guns, they have powerful men, and they can certainly inflict pain and fear to anyone who may antagonize their actions. Not everyone is equipped with high-caliber weapons so their forces can be suppressed. And to make matters worse, Some of the police officers who have the means to stop them are on their payroll as well. Just as depicted in the movies, some law-enforcers are also members of organized crime.

Can the battle against illegal drugs be truly won by ordinary citizens if the real culprits are savages with high-powered weapons? Battling these thugs does not mean people have to wield deadly weapons to eliminate them. That would make us vigilantes– no less gruesome than those monsters we fight against. So how can ordinary citizens fight them?

Even without resorting to weapon-wielding or violence, ordinary citizens can do these:

Refusing to give protection money

The forming of drug syndicate groups as well as organized crime in general is built upon the concepts of business... money is the ultimate fuel that makes them operational. As mentioned above, gangs would approach a particular businessman asking for money in exchange for the protection they can give from other insurgents.

The more people who patronize this system, the more gangs emerge with the sole purpose of being the strongest and deadliest group of all, which evidently results into endless violence.

Inasmuch as there will be no more hunters if there are no more preys, then extortionists would be bygones if people are brave enough not to give in to their demands. This is difficult and frightening, but danger is the sacrifice the citizens have to endure. It is a small price to pay for a much more peaceful society that will endure through the ages.

Collaborative citizen resistance

Drug syndicates have guns and hitmen, but how many are they compared to the total number of the general population? They may have the guts to kill and the mechanism to do it, but the wisest mob bosses know full too well, that killing is not the primary component to business.

This means that even if they can possibly kill anyone that they consider as a hindrance to their operations, there are certain reasons why they would choose not to. If the people would let their fear overpower them, these gangs would gather greater power.

If the syndicates are frightening, then the general public should teach these villains that the joint-forces of all ordinary citizens are even more fear-inducing due to their greater numerical advantage.

Keeping the authorities updated

It is a fact that some law-enforcers are gang members as well. However, it is also noteworthy that there are still a few honest and decent police officers out there. Such honorable men in uniform must be directly informed if gangs and delinquent groups are harnessing strength and resources to prepare for social insurgency.

How can we possibly tell if a police officer belongs to the decent and honest category? There are no absolute guidelines. However, there is another authoritative body that we can count on if we have to scare the mobs in some ways – the press people. Always hungry for their next big scoop, media-men are always vigilant and ever ready to hear testimonials that could bring a rising or established syndicate.

Regulating Synthesis Technology : Minimizing Illegal-Drug Manufacturing in the Future

During the industrial age, machines were as big as houses. Now, due to the breakthroughs in miniaturization technology brought about by integrated circuits, manufacturing machinery as well as the factories themselves become physically smaller too.

Could it be possible that meth labs or other illegal-drug processing laboratories could become miniaturized to the point where they could fit into small booths or even in small boxes? Though this thought may be a bit too far-fetched, such a transformation could be possible as evidenced by cheap, over-the-counter devices today that can make anyone build his own home-made manufacturing equipment that are impossible to build outside a big factory in the past.

If plastic could be transformed into a substance that is as strong as metal or if a simple cloth could be made to appear as leather, then it could be very possible to synthesize addictive substances so they would appear to be something else in the perception of people.

Perhaps, something harmless-looking in typical observation. In the not too distant future, any hobbyist or aspiring drug-manufacturer could build his own miniature drug-lab using affordable electronic-gadgets or facilities built out of monobloc, recycled materials– cheap but functional, and nonetheless efficient.

As an answer to this, the government should consider regulating the selling and distribution of do-it-yourself kits, at least in the chemical aspect of manufacturing. If it is not dealt with today, we could be seeing teenagers in the future building their own weapons, creating their own chemicals and most probably... fashioning their own designer drugs.

Conclusion

The seriousness of illegal-drug problems is among the highest concerns in nearly all countries all over the world. The Philippines, being a third-world country is among the areas where drug-abuse hits really hard. This is evidenced by crimes skyrocketing to the highest points, which escalated other social problems as well.

As a solution, the government devised various methods to combat the seemingly invincible growth and manifestation of addictive substances. However, these methods are never enough. It can be clearly observed that an alarming percentage of the youth of today are still hooked into drugs.

This is a wake-up call for the government as well as its citizens. New, more effective methods have to be to devised and implemented, methods that can penetrate not only the most obvious and direct levels, but on the other subtle and less-discernible areas as well.

In this article series, we understood that the rise of the narcotics epidemic was highly contributed by: the rise of criminality – because people are scared or because they feel the need to be on power; and the fall of the economy – by which they resort into illegal activities to gain monetary advantage.

Another reason is because people especially the youth are pressured and motivated by their peers. And because they don't get the attention and love they deserve from their families, they are easily ensnared by their more attentive social circles where some bad influences are sometimes very rampant.

As an answer to this social disease, this paper targeted keypoints that can help deal with the problem at hand. These points are methods that dig through the roots and anticipate what the future holds without failing to acknowledge certain realities.

These steps discuss the author's views on how a more improved approach can be implemented: making the people aware of narcotics, healing the economy, combating poverty and even went as far as suggesting to battle organized crime.

The problems caused by drug-abuse and the whole scope it destroys can't be solved at a zero-rate setting. However it can certainly be neutralized. How? By a collaboration of the government and of its people centered upon love, unity and bravery.

When this collaboration is performed in increasing measure, the society can be relatively at peace, and be on a more ideal trip towards prosperity and environmental healing.

Thanks for sticking through the end of this article series. Godspeed reader!