Download philippine drug enforcement agency

Republic of the Philippines
Office of the President
PHILIPPINE DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY
NIA Northside Road, National Government Center
Barangay Pinyahan, Quezon City
.
PRESS RELEASE # 288/15
DATE
AUTHORITY
:
:
July 3, 2015
UNDERSECRETARY ARTURO G. CACDAC, JR., CESE
Director General
For more information, comments and suggestions please call:
DERRICK ARNOLD C. CARREON, Director, Public Information Office
Tel. No. 929-3244, 927-9702 Loc.131; Cell phone: 09159111585
PDEA: LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND NOT THE EXCLUSIVE BASIS FOR
DETERMINING THE PRICE OF DANGEROUS DRUGS
The law of supply and demand is no longer the exclusive basis for
determining the price of dangerous drugs according to the Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
“Basically, the availability and demand for dangerous drugs have a direct
effect on its price structure. When the market price of illegal drugs falls, it is generally
assessed that there is a greater supply available in the market and vice-versa,” said
PDEA Director General Undersecretary Arturo G. Cacdac, Jr.
“A closer study of the country’s illegal drug trade however, point to other
factors which influenced the market price of illegal drugs,” Cacdac added.
In 2003 when the market was controlled by Chinese/ Chinese-Filipino Drug
Groups, the price of shabu in the Philippines was only P600,000 to P700,000 per
kilo. The price drastically went up in 2007 to P3 million to P3.5 million when said
drug groups decided to smuggle then market the “2 in1” shabu produced in North
Korea which is of high purity. However, the entry of new players in 2009 belonging to
the African Drug Syndicates and Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel which marketed low
purity but cheaper shabu forced the Chinese/Chinese-Filipino Drug Groups to revert
to the smuggling and local manufacture of low purity shabu which were sold at much
lower prices than the “2 in 1” shabu.
Another factor to consider is the use of other methods in producing shabu.
The traditional way used in dismantled clandestine laboratories in the Philippines is
the “Red Phosporus” or “Nagai Method” where the initial cost of precursor, reagents,
and equipment used for producing one (1) kilo of shabu is P1,422,450.00.
The joint operation conducted by the Special Enforcement Service (SES),
PDEA and the PNP-AIDSOTF in San Fernando City, Pampanga on September 12,
2014 which resulted in the recovery of 461 kilos of shabu, 236.77 kilograms of
ephedrine, 656.76 kilos of 1, 2-dimethyl-3-phenylaziridine and arrest of four (4)
Chinese nationals, also led to the discovery of an instructional disk in the
manufacture of shabu using the “Birch Method” where the cost of producing one (1)
kilo of shabu is only P477,450.00. The use of “Birch Method” significantly reduced
the production cost of shabu by 66%.
“The lower their manufacturing cost, the lesser the prices of dangerous drugs
offered in the market,” the PDEA chief said, explaining why prices of illegal drugs are
not necessarily inversely proportional to the supply.
PDEA is presently intensifying its effort to hit the supply of drugs and arrest of
high value targets in compliance to the instruction of President Benigno S Aquino III.
###