Douglas believes that Duterte’s drug war could go the same way as Thailand’s. “Given the similarities to the drug war that started in Thailand in 2003 it is reasonable to assume there will be a similar outcome,” he said.

Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies said such efforts to eliminate drug use have so far backfired. “The drug economy evolves under Darwinian principles. As we throw more law enforcement and militarised resources at this problem, the type of people we typically capture tend to be those who are dumb enough to get caught,” he said.

Such large-scale crackdowns have not been seen elsewhere in Southeast Asia, but Collins points out that “drug policy in Southeast Asia has generally been typified by a strong law enforcement approach focusing on street distribution and users.”

Indonesia’s unyielding drug laws drew international attention last year when two members of the so-called ‘Bali Nine’ – a group of nine Australians found guilty in 2009 of attempting to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Indonesia to Australia – were executed, along with six other prisoners.

Last year, 14 people faced the firing squad for drug offences while few more. As of February this year, more than 69,000 people were incarcerated in the country for drug-related crimes.VIDEO: The “drug war for power” concept is universal. Applies also in America.

Yet figures from the International Drug Policy Consortium suggest that tough punishments are not working. From 2011 to 2015, the number of drug users in the country increased from 3.6 million to 5.9 million.

It is a similar story in Malaysia, where the death penalty is a mandatory punishment for serious drug offences, although the sentence is rarely carried out today. But hard-line anti-drug policies appear to have had little impact. According the National Anti-Drug Agency, there were about 15,000 registered drug addicts in the country. Today, that number exceeds 130,000.

According to Douglas, whilst policing is important, more needs to be done to address the root causes of the demand for illicit substances. “Law enforcement needs to be part of the response, but it does not need to be the primary response, in Southeast Asia reality is that governments have not dealt with market demand and use,” he said.

Note: The global war on drugs is failing in southeast Asia (see body count) and other parts of the world.

Read Original SEA Globe Article here.