Coping with drug abuse, the Australian way

By Herbert Vego 

AUSTRALIA, the “country down under,” has an estimated 3.9 million users of prohibited drugs, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).  But drug abuse is not considered a serious crime but a disease calling for medical attention. In fact, medicinal marijuana is legal with a doctor’s prescription.

Simple possession of illegal drugs for personal use typically results in fines or short-term imprisonment of two years or less in prison.

This was how a Sydney, Australia-based Filipino nurse explained to me that country’s bloodless war on drugs while vacationing here in Iloilo City.

Denmark Suede — son of the late Bombo Radyo broadcaster Eddie K. Suede who has worked in hospitals in New Zealand and Austalia for the past 22 years – said he is directly involved in rehabilitating Australian drug dependents.

“I administer methadone on them,” he quipped.

Methadone, an opioid to treat extreme pain, doubles as treatment for addiction to prohibited drugs like heroin and methamphetamine or shabu. Available in tablet, powder and liquid forms, it blocks the “high” the user gets from addictive drugs.

Crackdown is not strictly enforced unless necessary.

“You can sniff marijuana in Australia,” Suede said. “The police will not arrest you unless you drive a motor vehicle.”

Obviously, it’s because, like alcohol, marijuana impairs judgment, motor coordination, and reaction time. Studies have found a direct relationship between its blood concentration and impaired driving ability.

Suede said that while there is vigorous drive by the Australian government to rehabilitate drug dependents, they are never treated as criminals unless they commit crimes. However, killings done as a result of drug addiction are rare.

“Mass killings are now unheard of,” he revealed. “The last-recorded drug-influenced mass shooting in Australia happened in 1996 yet.”

Incidentally, the Bondi Beach shooting that killed 15 and wounded 40 people in Sydney, Australia on December 14, 2025 was a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community celebrating the Hanukkah festival.

Suede attributed peace in Australia to its small population that partakes of its huge material wealth. Its land area (7,688,287 square kilometers) is almost as big as the United States but its current population of approximately 27.6 million is not even one-fourth of the Philippine population.

His logic is believable when contrasted with the Philippine setting where shabu pushing among the poor is directly related to the need to make both ends meet. Cases of jeepney and tricycle drivers doubling as shabu couriers have been well-recorded.

“How could I feed my family on an income of more or less 300 pesos per day?”

It is a common excuse heard from tricycle drivers.

“Necessity knows no law,” goes a popular quotation. It mirrors the reality that pushers risk life and limb in trying to keep their loved ones alive. After all, mass hunger as an alternative could be a more fearful path to the grave.

When the bread winner dies, how would the bereaved family survive with no decent jobs available for them?

The best way to win the war on drugs is to win the war on poverty first. The World Bank estimates poverty incidence in the Philippines at 16 percent.

Incidentally, as in Australia, its neighbor New Zealand does not jail “harmless” drug addicts even though the possession, use, and cultivation of illegal drugs remain criminal offences.

During my three-week vacation in New Zealand, I neither heard nor read of violent crimes committed by meth users. In fact, I sidled up to one of them who was singing alone on a street corner.

He kept singing, happy to have an audience.

-oOo-

READER FORESEES MORE-ILECO COMPETITION

Josh Talaman, one of our readers, expects competition against Iloilo 1 Electric Cooperative (ILECO 1) in the 1^st District of Iloilo with the expected approval of Rep. Janette Garin’s House Bill 7647, which would allow MORE Power to distribute electricity there.

Talaman disagrees with Doods Moragas’ prediction that the “competition” would eventually melt down to a joint-venture agreement, in the same manner that the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) had done with MORE Power to form the Negros Electric and Power Corp (NEPC).

“CENECO was in deep financial distress,” he cited. “It needed rescue, not optimization. If ILECO I is not bankrupt or collapsing, applying the same solution is like prescribing surgery to a patient who might only need therapy.”

More on this soon.