Hong Kong singer William So (
Some critics have even condemned Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The statistics, however, make it hard to believe that the Taipei police are doing too little in the fight against drugs.
The Taipei Municipal Police Department seized over 2,000 grams of Ecstasy between January and May. That is 11 times more than the amount seized in Kaohsiung during the same period and it represents more than half of the total amount seized in Taiwan over that period.
Thanks to media reports, President Chen Shui-bian (
Ma seems to be being regarded in an altogether inferior light, whenever his conduct is compared with Chen's swift and ruthless action. But since the city government under Chen often acted without adherence to the law, many businesses later filed lawsuits against the city government. The city government also lost many national compensation suits because of administrative flaws in the handling of the cases.
In its pursuit of genuine justice, the city government actually broke the law even as it sought to enforce it. Action that dispenses without the due process of law is not to be emulated.
Poorly drafted laws, however, have frustrated the police in their efforts to crack down on the sex industry and on drug abuses. Faced with certain business which repeatedly refuse to mend their ways, the police can only sigh in despair.
TeXound is a case in point. Although the police inspect the club at least twice a week and have arrested countless drug users there, they have no power to close the club or suspend its water and electricity supplies.
Indeed, the city government has no power to close clubs in which customers possess or take Ecstasy unless it is proven that the owners and staff of these clubs possess, provide or sell the drugs, or allow and introduce others to sell drugs there.
Even if the police have collected evidence of the above, the clubs can still usually avoid a suspension of business or its utilities, simply by changing the nominal heads listed on their business licenses or by moving to other premises.
The police can only carry out frequent inspections of these clubs. Any drug user who is seized there must undergo a urine test and face prosecution if the test proves positive. The deterrent value of this method is limited by the long-winded nature of the legal process.
But since drug problems are closely related to violence and crime, Taiwan has always considered the crackdown on drugs as a major priority.
Ecstasy pills, originally named MDMA -- a class-two drug known as "head-shake pills" (
The problem is so complex that it is unlikely to be solved by the police alone. We must address issues of education about drug abuse, urban planning, and business management if we are to solve the problem completely.
Sandy Yeh is an associate professor of administration management at Central Police University.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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