aguio City, Philippines (August 15, 2005)--Some of the balding mountains of Luzon are being re-greened by a fast-growing, zero-management crop which makes vegetables look cheap. Good news? Unfortunately not!

The green foliage is illegal and deadly—and priced as much as gold—tempting many who feel the pangs of poverty, especially the “dirt-poor” farmers, who plant the crop.

“Green gold,” or marijuana (Cannabis sativa) now stands as the region’s multi-million industry especially so when return of investment is considered. Gold mining is a poor second and is fast being exhausted while the vegetable industry suffers from the effects of cheap imports.

This leaves many farmers with little choice. “To farm or not to farm that is the question.” The answer is “you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” Thus, many have chosen to farm--despite the risks.

Marijuana remains the most widely used prohibited drug especially in Baguio for two reasons. It is easily available and it is cheaper than “shabu”. In fact, many users say they get it for free.

The unpopular Vietnam War brought marijuana cultivation to Northern Luzon.. US servicemen on “rest and recreation” in Baguio’s Camp John Hay and Sagada brought the seeds from Vietnam and asked farmers to plant it. It did not take long for the weed to spread to neighboring provinces.

By the early 1990s, there were more marijuana plantations than there were military helicopters to conduct raids. And more often than not, military officers found their involvement to be an “enriching” experience.

Crime Does Not Pay, Neither Does Farming

Poverty has simply pushed many farmers to plant the crop. “It is no secret that marijuana has enriched many farmers. The unfortunate thing is that while some have stopped planting or selling the illegal crop, many others are still in it,” Manuel Pitana of the local agriculture agency said.

“You practically spend nothing when planting marijuana, except the seeds. Find a hidden area or kaingin, clean it, plant. After six months, go back and—bingo, you’ve hit the jackpot,.” he added. “Compare that to vegetable production, where you are constantly bedeviled by high initial costs, a monopoly of middlemen, pests and diseases, high labor and management costs, unpredictable climatic conditions and low market prices,” Pitana explained.

One kilo of high quality marijuana fetches between 1, 500 to 1,800 pesos in the local market. A kilo of any of the most expensive vegetables, say sweet peas, bell pepper or broccoli is only anything from 25- 40 pesos per kilo.

Inside a Marijuana Plantation

George Farnus, a forester and community development worker bared to this writer in a visit to Sadanga that in Botbot, Tinglayan, and Kalinga, many households have expensive appliances, even though those areas have no electricity. They instead use expensive batteries and generators to power those appliances. How can they afford it? Marijuana.

And they watch over their crops well. In one visit to a hinterland area, 14 year-old Wandas teenager watched over a corn field with a sharp eye, a cocked ear and a well-oiled AK-47 assault rifle.

The reason for such security measures: thousands of hemp plants or “Bontoc blade” as they are called, inter-cropped with the corn. This high-grade marijuana keeps many poor families fed, and as you may have guessed, armed to the teeth. No one will admit that they are members of the communist New Peoples Army (NPA) but neither do they hide their disgust of the government.

“We plant marijuana to send our children to school. Can the government suggest a better alternative? It warns of arresting us but it cannot provide us work, food or education for our children,” the planters bluntly reply when asked why they plant the locoweed.

Hide and Seek With Helicopters

The government’s response to the proliferation of marijuana plantations and hashish laboratories is an increase in patrols and raids using military type Huey helicopters.

In 2001, former commander Gen. Crescencio Maralit of the Camp Bado Dangwa PNP Regional Command, said some 45,000 plants nearly worth US$125,000 were raided in Hingyon, Ifugao and Tinglayan, Kalinga. Last year, an estimated US$300 million worth of marijuana was also destroyed.

But fighting the drug trade is an uphill battle. The International Narcotics Control Strategy (INCS) of the US State Department says “Stemming production of marijuana in the Philippines is difficult owing to the country’s topography. The areas are inaccessible by any vehicle and usually under complete rebel control.”

“There is also evidence of corruption in the Philippine government and military which adds to the difficulty of solving the country’s drug problem,” it added.


Trail of Bad Roads, Vegetables and Drugs

Spotting a marijuana plantation and destroying it is as difficult as knowing where it will be transported. The 290 kilometer stretch of Halsema Highway or Mountain Trail from Benguet to Kalinga is not only the most dangerous in the country, it is also the trickiest to travel through, with many sections hidden by winding turns and covered with heavy brush.

Like the Ho Chi Minh Drug Trail in Vietnam which was abandoned after the war, Halsema is where much of the drug passes through because of its numerous elusive foot trails. There is also an inadequate number of checkpoints, poor communication facilities and a lack of trained anti-drug personnel and detection equipment. This gives drug couriers the ability to travel in and out of drug producers’ lairs unimpeded. In Tinglayan for instance, planters openly boast that Yakuza drug buyers have no difficulty transporting their “goods” through the area.

Which confirms what former Sen. Ernesto Herrera former head the Senate Committee on Drug Control had been saying: that the “Yakuza and Chinese Triad gangs are the most active in the country’s marijuana trade.”

Herrera says the Philippines, is world’s second highest producer of marijuana, next to Mexico, responsible for US$ 1.4 billion worth of marijuana and hashish annually. “Because of high grade marijuana varieties grown particularly in the Cordillera region, it has lured international syndicates like the Yakuza, Chinese triads and West African connections who are responsible in smuggling out the drug.”

“Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Netherlands are the main shipping points. The high grade marijuana is bought in Japan for US$45 or 5,000 Yen per gram. In its hashish form, it is sold up to US$72 or 18,000 Yen per gram,” Herrera said.

Drug trafficking through Halsema is a “cat and mouse game.” Some mix the stuff with vegetables, lumber, sawdust and fertilizers. They hide it inside tire interiors, fuel tanks and under dashboards. One officer of the Narcotics Command even said they apprehended a trafficker in a Pajero who hid the drug inside the expensive door panels.

Worsening Drug Use in Baguio City

Not all the marijuana and hashish from the Cordillera provinces slip out of the region. Some of it is used by professionals and students in Baguio City. In fact, the growing drug problem is now a priority concern of the city.

Former councilor and police chief Roberto Ortega warned last year that use of illegal and dangerous narcotics has now trickled down to even the very young,. He initiated a program where drug users are part of an information campaign on the evils of drug use.

Regina Vizcaya, Center Director of the Shalom House, a non-governmental organization and the only drug rehabilitation institution in the region, says marijuana is the most prevalent drug. Shabu is next. It is used widely in public places like schools, offices and parks by professionals and students alike.

“The average drug user in the city is a professional, not a student. He is a male, married, unemployed or underemployed and under stress. Then there are also those who are doctors, lawyers or executives in senior level positions in government and the private sector,” Vizcaya added.

Then there are the large number of students who also hooked on drugs, Vizcaya noted. But a disturbing fact is that, many are under thirteen years of age, she said. Prepubescent drug users who cannot get marijuana sniff rugby glue (contact cement) or take over-the-counter cough syrup, she said.

In schools free or inexpensive marijuana is the main reason for its widespread use. Vizcaya also points out that many of those students who do not use drugs are known as “marijuana scholars.” These are students who come from the Cordillera provinces where marijuana is widely grown. They sell marijuana in Baguio City to support their studies.

From 1997 to 1998 alone, Vizcaya said there was a remarkable increase of in-patients as well as out-patients referred to Shalom house by the police authorities as well as well as those who sought help voluntarily. Among Shalom patients are many juveniles and even some inmates from the Baguio City jail.

By MICHAEL A. BENGWAYAN