Indeed, it is a tall order for newly-minted Regional Police Director Prudencio Bañas to pronounce a drug-free Bohol. Without sounding skeptical, we know it is next to impossible to rid the province of the proliferating drug menace. Not even Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who is known far and wide to have eliminated anybody who wants to test his political will in ridding his beloved city of drug dregs. Never did we ever hear straight from the horse's mouth that Davao becomes ground zero to drugs because of his mailed-fist policy against the drug threat. The tough mayor may have curved the city of its drug problem but still we can hear sporadic incidents of drug abuse. Proof that even if he may have stricken fear in the hardened hearts of drug peddlers, it's still business as usual in some parts of the city. We are no authority to pass judgment on the capacity of law enforcers to make Bohol free from drugs. There's no harm in trying, anyway. But at the rate of how the drug problem has escalated into alarming levels, we cannot help but keep our fingers crossed hoping against hope that it can be done. If we study the anatomy of the drug malady, we don't think it needs a rocket scientist to analyze why it keeps on thriving and thriving.

Simple. Just like, one plus one, equals two. One thing to consider is that the drug business is very lucrative. The handsome returns in earnings resulting from drug money are very tempting prompting denizens to risk life and limbs. If people involved in drugs know the risk behind, then it is worth the danger that lies therein. The sight of drug suppliers bathing in their own pool of blood after a so-called shootout with agents of the law is enough reality that would send shivers down the spine of their living cohorts. But does it actually quiver them into giving up their illegal act? We think not. We would like to believe that from the ranks of the dead, rise another Lazarus or deputy to take over the drug operations. For one, life sustained by drug money is a game changer. That partly explains why the drug problem is proliferating? We need not wander elsewhere. Right in our surroundings, we know that many lifestyles were changed because of corruption in some players in our criminal justice system. True, there may be a few good men in the judiciary who are true to their code of ethical conduct who refuse to be bought with 30 pieces of silver.

How about those corrupt judges and fiscals who fall prey to the dirty machinations of smart lawyers and corrupt law enforcers. The lure of dirty money is there for the taking to those who handled cases of drug lords—from lawyers to fiscals and judges. Unless we rid the judicial system of corrupt personalities, the target of the Philippine National Police to make Bohol as a drug-free model is illusory at best. We are not underestimating the capacity of our policemen to solve drug crimes but at the rate they are performing their duty, sorry for this overstatement. For our policemen to improve their batting average in sending drug denizens behind bars is for them to improve their technical skills in drug raids and buy bust operations. How many times were cases against drug targets were dismissed because of the incompetence of those tasked to carry out the business of successfully prosecuting violators of the Dangerous Drug Act of 2002. What about the insinuations of cops protecting the purveyors of illegal drugs? According to police sources, it is still raw intelligence, but what if this report, is found to be true. If true, then it's all hell breaking loose. We hope not. Because if police whom we trust as our protector of the evil that illegal drug is, are in cahoots with drug criminals, then who can we turn to. Any law abiding citizen is dreaming that one day, this peaceful province will free itself from the tentacles of the drug menace. Can it be done? Your guess is as good as this BGlante's.