RMFB policemen say that they destroyed 22,000 stalks of fully grown marijuana plants in the March 7, 2020 operation in Asturias town. | Photo courtesy of RMFB
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Has the demand of marijuana plants or dried marijuana leaves in Cebu province and Cebu City increased?
Police Colonel Hector Grijaldo, Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Central Visayas (RMFB-7) chief, said he believed that this was the case amid the recent discovery of marijuana plantations in Asturias, Toledo, and Balamban.
The operation on March 7, 2020 in the hinterland barangay of Kaluangan, Asturias, a town in northwest Cebu, yielded P9 million worth of marijuana plants and seedlings.
RMFB-7 policemen uprooted the 20,000 fully grown marijuana plants and 5,000 marijuana seedlings found in the area.
They then burned these marijuana plants there.
Grijaldo said that policemen did not arrest any cultivator but residents near the area had allegedly identified to a man, whom they suspected to be the cultivator of the illegal plants.
He said they were still verifying these information.
Read more: IN Photos: P9M marijuana plants destroyed in Asturias
Before the Asturias operation, Grijaldo also cited the discovery of marijuana plantations in mountain barangays of Balamban town in and Toledo City in western Cebu.
Before those operations, the Cebu City Mobile Force Company (CFMC) of the Cebu City Police Office also uprooted and destroyed several thousands of marijuana plants in the mountain barangays of the city.
Read more: Balamban and Toledo City are marijuana plantation prone areas – Police
With these operations, Grijaldo said he believed on the possibility that the demand for marijuana among drug users in Cebu had increased.
Why they plant marijuana
Grijaldo told CDN Digital in the interview that some people would resort to planting these illegal plants because it was easier to grow them in the mountain areas.
He also said that these plants would often go undetected and with the plants higher value, there would be people who would grab the opportunity to grow them.
“We could say that it is rampant because it is an alternative drug and grows easily in the mountain areas because of the good weather condition,” said Grijaldo.
He also said that the marijuana plants might have become another source of livelihood to some of these people because it had a higher money value when compared to growing vegetables.
Solving the livelihood problem
But Grijaldo said this might be just an excuse to justify their illegal activities.
“It is not the reason to be engaged in illegal activities because we know the fact that planting marijuana is not an acceptable norm sa society, it is a violation of the law,” said Grijaldo.
He also said that they were also consolidating reports of residents near these marijuana plantations to assess their needs.
Read more: Cops to stop marijuana cultivators in mountain brgys with bamboos
He said this data could provide the local government units to come up with plans and programs to better help these communities.
By helping the community with their livelihood needs, then those involved in illegal activities might no longer continue planting marijuana plants to earn income.
Community’s trust
Grijaldo also emphasized that the police should do more to win the trust of the community.
He said that the reason there were still many illegal plants grown in these areas was because the community had not yet fully trusted the police.
He said the police and community relationship, however, had since progressed because those reporting about the illegal activities were residents in the area.
Grijaldo cited the need to have the public trust the police because without their trust and cooperation their efforts to stop illegal activities in these hinterland barangays would be futile.
He said that the police should also ensure that the safety of the community and that they should not fear those individuals whom they had reported to the police for their illegal activities./dbs