CAMP VICENTE LIM --  The unabated smuggling of illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu), is among the reasons why the price of the illegal substance has plummeted, according to an official of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

In a talk with People’s Tonight, PDEA Calabarzon regional director, Elmer Margate, said aside from the Philippines, already being tagged as a “transhipment point” in the international market for illegal drugs, what is abetting the rampant smuggling of shabu into the country is its new reputation as a nation of “shabu consumer.”

He said their study of the regional drug situation showed that shabu being shipped to the Philippines commands the highest price among international suppliers at $100,000 per kilo, followed by Japan at $90,000 per kilo.

In third place is Thailand where shabu is being sold at $60,000 per kilo “because cocaine is more consumed there than here.”

Data from the office of Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman, Antonio “Manong Bebot” Villar, showed that as of 2008, there is an estimated 1.7 million drug users in the country.

In previous years, DDB records showed, the number of illegal drugs users in the country reached a staggering 9.3 million in 2001 and 6.7 million in 2004.

Following the discovery of several shabu manufacturing bases in the country in 2009, Margate noted that the street price of shabu at the time subsequently went up to between P9,000 to P10,000 per gram in Luzon and up to P20,000 per gram in other regions of the country due to the scarcity of supply.

At present, he noted that the street price of shabu has gone down to just between P3,000 to P5,000 per gram.

At this current price, the turnover of illegal drugs in the country -- even with just one million users consuming an average of 2 grams of shabu each week -- would translate from anywhere between P288 billion to P930 billion every year, which is more than one half of the country’s budget of P1.6 trillion last year.

Due to the huge market, Margate opined that international drug syndicates are willing to pay huge amounts, upwards to $10,000, for each human “drug mule” to carry shabu into the country in their luggage.

The scheme is separate from the organized effort by international drug suppliers, mainly members of Chinese drug syndicates, to import the product directly -- or its entire manufacturing facility or laboratory -- so that shabu can be manufactured here in clandestine places.

Margate, however, credited the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for also actively helping the PDEA in stemming the flow of illegal drugs into the country.