Policy experts have urged the Philippine government to completely overhaul the country’s existing law to address drug use, arguing that it is anti-poor, counterproductive, and outdated.
During a dialogue organized by the Drug Policy Reform Initiative this past weekend, public health and harm reduction advocates said the Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, has enabled the country’s “war on drugs” approach.
They added that the two-decade-old law neglects proper care and rehabilitation for drug users in favor of punishing poverty and vulnerability.
“We’ve spent years criminalizing drug use, but the result has only been fear, stigma, and more violence. It’s time to start seeing people whose lives happen to include drugs as members of our communities, too,” Institute for Politics and Governance executive director Arline Santos said.
Drug Policy Reform Initiative convenor and lawyer Tetay Mendoza likewise said that people whose lives include drugs are among the most stigmatized and dehumanized sectors in the Philippines.
“When our drug laws immediately reduce people to violent criminals rather than citizens, they strip away basic human dignity. Our laws equate drug use with moral failure, and in doing so, they fail to uphold the rights and dignity of Filipinos. Harm reduction means creating policies that care rather than punish,” Mendoza said, adding that a paradigm shift is needed to reorient drug policy toward public health and empathy.
Meanwhile, public health expert and doctor RJ Naguit of the Philippine Society of Public Health Physicians (PSPHP) cited the Dangerous Drugs Board’s National Household Survey results, which found a national drug prevalence of 2.05 percent versus the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime’s finding of a global figure of 5.6 percent.
“The government’s own data show that the Philippines’ rate of drug use has been below the global average since 2019, yet our response has been disproportionately violent,” Naguit explained.
“The fact is, our country’s drug problem has been overstated to justify violent and punitive policies. We must invest in dignified and evidence-based strategies that save lives,” he added.
House Bill 11004, or the proposed Public Health Approach to Drug Use Act of 2024, filed by Akbayan party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña, calls for a state policy approaching drugs with a public health lens. It seeks to ban arbitrary and unlawful interference with privacy, torture, corporal punishment, and misrepresentation of information.
