The evil problem on illegal drugs is not a sole responsibility for the police to solve, in as much as it is not the sole burden for government officials to handle. We are all one and on the same boat. Whatever happens to the society where we live in, whether we take an active or passive role, we are all directly affected by the ramifications of any social ills such as the morbid effects of illegal drugs. Illegal drugs could destroy the whole structure of society. And if we continue to pay lip service toward its eradication, we are all doomed to perdition.

We have seen how the use of drugs has contributed to the rise of heinous crimes. And we have seen how precarious our lives have become, being exposed to all sorts of drug-fueled crimes. Yet, we remain apathetic to the stark reality that illegal drugs is everyone's concern. We approach the problem as if we are not part of one whole society which is under threat by the demonic effects of drugs. While the police are working hard day and night arresting those behind the illegal drug trade and while government officials are relentlessly advocating for its end, lawyers and prosecutors are also preoccupied with finding faults on police operations, throwing all the blames on law enforcers why the war on drugs is failing. Instead of looking at the problem in a wider perspective, those in the judicial system are holding an oversized telescope, nitpicking all sorts of “technical” lapses that they may notice in the course of prosecution. The result: drug pushers are coming in and out of jail. Then drug pushers would go back to their evil business with more confidence that they are beyond the reach of law.

How vicious the cycle has become. And at the end of the day, the police, the NBI, the PDEA get their salary for doing their job; prosecutors and judges also get their pay for doing their job; and lawyers, the real winners in this vicious cycle, also get fat fees for doing their job. But then, what's next? Who will suffer as a result of this vicious cycle? Well, the next thing we hear is that a son, under the influence of shabu, has raped his own mother. Well, the thing we hear is a loved one has just been murdered by a drug addict, who was also trying to rob the victim. We cannot continue to live in this kind of “sachet mentality” without getting destroyed in the end. If members of society and government agencies and offices would continue to live in a highly compartmentalized mentality in which there is a tendency for individuals to believe that the problem of illegal drugs is mainly a police concern, then we are as hopeless as Malaysian Airlines' Flight MH370.

Since the problem is obviously affecting the whole spectrum of society - including the families and loved ones of politicians, the families and loved ones of fiscals and judges, the families and loved ones of private lawyers and government counsels, the families and loved ones of police officers – why can't we work together for a common good? Do we have to wait for that gruesome day to arrive when drug-induced crimes are already beyond control as these wreck havoc on the lives of our very own loved ones before the police, elected officials, fiscals and judges - and lawyers - would finally sit down together and strategize how to destroy a common enemy to our collective peace and survival?