137 DRUG SUSPECTS FALL IN NEG. OCC.

It's 137 less drug personalities for Negros Occidental.

The police said yesterday that 137 or 92 percent of the 153 drug
personalities targeted in Negros Occidental, have been arrested in 11
months.

In the same period, 185 of 201 drug-affected barangays in Negros
Occidental were cleared, the police claimed.

The amount of drugs confiscated by the Negros Occidental police in the
province, aside from Bacolod City, meanwhile, dropped to P323,100 this
year, from P762, 758 in 2004, police records show.

Police Supt. Pedro Merced director of the Bacolod City Police Office,
said the number of drug-affected barangays in Bacolod City also
dropped from 24 to only four this year.

Merced also reported that the supply of shabu is becoming more scarce,
and majority of the big time drug pushers have been arrested and are
now locked up in jail.

"There is an indication that drug users are shifting from shabu to
marijuana, while some resort to valium tablets," Merced added. He also
said that adulterated shabu is now being sold by peddlers.

Shabu still remains the number one drug of choice, despite the
scarcity of supply, PDEA regional chief Rolen Balquin said in his report.

The ports of San Carlos, Bacolod and Dumaguete have been identified by
the PDEA among the entry points of prohibited drugs in Negros
Occidental and Oriental Negros.

Balquin said no drug group has been monitored after the arrest of Jose
Kim Cuadra, alleged leader of the Cuadra group, although there is
still rampant selling of prohibited drugs by individuals.

PDEA investigations show that prices of shabu now range from P3,500 to
P4,000 per gram.

Merced said that in Bacolod shabu is being sold at a maximum of P6,000
per gram.

The police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force, in its
study, noted that the problem of illegal drugs is not so much the
reduction of supply, but the reduction of demand for it.

The Negros Occidental and Bacolod City police offices as well as the
PDEA, are now intensifying their anti-drug campaign in schools.

Police records show that each member of the members of the Sangguniang
Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental has earmarked P25,000 to help the
information drive and drug awareness program of Senior Supt. Charles
Calima, in the schools of the province.