Police chief against legalizing marijuana

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Intelligence Chief Insp. Romeo Santander has expressed his opposition against the legalization of marijuana in the country.

This after recent discussions popped up on the possibility of decriminalizing the use of Marijuana in the Philippines following the approval of the use of marijuana in two American states- Colorado and Washington.

Santander said that based on their investigations on heinous crimes, marijuana-usage is one of the contributory factors for suspects to commit such crimes.

When he was chief of police of Minglanilla town in 2008, he stated as an example that a lady was butchered by a man who was high on marijuana.

Santander added that in some of the major cases in Cebu City, the suspects admitted to law enforcers that they used marijuana and shabu before they commited the crime.

Once the use and selling of marijuana is legalized, it might cause a sudden increase in the crime volume in the country, said Santander, who stressed on the danger of the herbal drug.

“Ikaduha ni siya sa shabu,” said Santander, who added that the production of marijuana is rampant in mountain barangays. The police have been able to uproot several stalks of live marijuana in the mountain barangays of Badian, Balamban, Dalaguete and the city of Danao.

Last week, agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) together with the soldiers from Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) 2nd Air Division uprooted almost 2,000 stalks of marijuana in the province.

Under Philippine Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002, marijuana is classified as an illegal drug enumerated under the special law. The law was co-authored by the former Cebu City South District Representative Antonio “Tony” Cuenco. — (FREEMAN)