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The Philippines War on Drugs Is Just as Destructive, Pointless As Ours
Bullets don’t stop drug use
Since the rise of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, the country has seen a massive crackdown on illegal drugs. However, Duterte’s war on drugs has a very high body count. According to research, the death toll is hard to figure out. Human Rights Watch estimates the number at 12,000 in about five years. However, other estimates by the International Criminal Court say the number of deaths is as high as 30,000.
Duterte, a strongman who former President Donald Trump praised, took a broad approach to his battle against drug use. Essentially Duterte gave law enforcement the authority to do whatever they wanted. And it seems they operated death squads who killed anybody who they deemed as drugs suspects.
A war on undesirables
But is the Filipino war on drugs any different from the war on drugs here? The U.S. war on drugs wasn’t explicitly designed to destroy lives, but it often had the same effect. Our war on drugs ruined thousands of lives. People weren’t executed, but many lives were ruined because of long-term jail sentences and those awful three-strikes laws. Also, I suspect that several people were killed in police raids or died in police custody.
