New Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana shied away from recommendations by his predecessor Gen Paiboon Koomchaya to de-criminalise amphetamines, marijuana and krathom. (File photo by Thanarak Khunton) Thailand should adopt an integrated approach to tackle the problems of drug abuse and addiction, Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana says. Strategies to solve the problems need to be adjusted, Mr Suwaphan said, adding legal measures alone would not solve the drug scourge. He was speaking at a meeting in Bangkok Thursday which he chaired to discuss social measures to help curb the impacts of drug abuse and addiction on communities. [continues 239 words]
Narcotics suppression police question Francis Mukwamba, a Zambian passport holder whose real nationality is uncertain, at a hotel room in Sukhumvit area of Bangkok on Dec 26. (Photo taken from the Narcotics Suppression Bureau Facebook page) Two foreign nationals were arrested after 4kg of cocaine were found in their bags when they arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport from Africa and a third, their alleged contact, was later apprehended at a city hotel. Pol Maj Gen Sommai Kongwisaisuk, acting commissioner of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, said Johnny Halop Sajulga, a Filipino, and a Vietnamese woman, Chao Thi Thuong, 37, arrived from Ethiopia on Flight ET 628 on Dec 26. [continues 159 words]
JUSTICE MINISTER General Paiboon Koomchaya is willing to propose that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invoke Article 44 of the interim charter to downgrade the amphetamine drug known as "yaba" to a narcotics category two drug, provided that the Public Health Ministry has a proper system to combat drug abuse. Public Health permanent secretary Dr Sopon Mekthon said he was ready to respond accordingly if the government revised its policy to regulate the drug. He said doctors could not prescribe 'yaba' for medical treatment while it remained a category one drug. Category two drugs can be used legally with a doctor's prescription. Downgrading the category of the drug could address addiction issues, officials have said, because the current designation as a category one drug carries severe penalties that can deter users from seeking treatment. [continues 328 words]
Thailand is on the wrong track in its efforts to address drug problems and it is time to treat drug abuse as a health issue rather than a crime, says Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya. Speaking at the "Thailand's Drug Policy Revisited" forum held by the Thailand Institute of Justice, Gen Paiboon said the high number of drug offenders and widespread drug abuse in communities shows the drug policy is failing. "It has been wrong all these years. If not, why do 70% of drug offenders remain in prison? Why does the problem persist despite thousands of deaths? And why do people still complain about drugs in their community? They're telling us there's something wrong," he said. [continues 240 words]
BANGKOK In a backroom heavy with sawdust, Mr Akkarin Puri, 33, carefully examines the veneer of a half-finished guitar. There was a time when the craftsman's attention was more focused on inhaling the vapours from a pill of yaba - a methamphetamine - heated over a flame. In fact, by the age of 21, his drug habit had landed him in juvenile detention at least six times and a military lock-up for 18 months. There, he tried to rob a fellow addict to fund his next fix and landed himself in jail for another eight years. It was while doing time in a particularly notorious prison, in Pathum Thani province next to Bangkok, that he saw up close one of the gravest consequences of the kingdom's long-running "war on drugs". [continues 1319 words]
BANGKOK - Somsak Sreesomsong was 18 when he was jailed for selling illegal drugs. Now, turning 30, he is not yet half way through his 33-year sentence at Bangkok's high-security Klong Prem prison. Somsak was "just a kid, not a big-time dealer," his older brother Panit told Reuters after a visit to the jail. "We're also serving time, waiting for him to get out so he can help the family." More than a decade after Thailand declared a "war on drugs," the country is admitting defeat. As the prison population soars, Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya told Reuters he was looking at changes to the country's draconian drug laws. [continues 636 words]
Move targets marijuana use amid prison population boom; some drugs may be reclassified for controlled use Marijuana or methamphetamine users in Thailand may get rehabilitation rather than jail under broad changes to the country's narcotics policy. The kingdom is reviewing its zero-tolerance approach, which has caused its prison population to balloon without actually controlling the proliferation of illicit drugs. Draft legal changes, recently approved by the Cabinet and expected to be tabled in Parliament, would emphasise rehabilitation over jail terms for drug users and mandate more proportional sentences. They will be put in place before the term of the current military government expires, Justice Minister Paiboon Kumchaya said this week. [continues 448 words]
Thai experts have rightly commented on the value of treatment and health-centred approaches. While it may always be best to be prudent when commenting on the domestic affairs of another country, there are times when issues become far too important to stand silently by and politely observe such custom - the current debate on laws governing methamphetamine use in Thailand is one of those occasions. Drug policy is a dynamic and complex arena and for too long countries have overly focused on investments in law enforcement agencies to address drug use. Whilst no one denies the importance and legitimacy of law enforcement agencies, its lead role in the drug area is an approach that does little to help everyday people and families. Instead, it increases the likelihood of families becoming collateral damage in an ever harmful war on drugs. Nearly all countries agree that arresting and imprisoning people who use drugs has terrible consequences yet when discussion turns to evidence based reform there is little progress and movement towards a health based response and leadership on the issue. [continues 690 words]
Paiboon Ready to Transfer Drug Rehab Function to Public Health Ministry JUSTICE Minister Paiboon Koomchaya is ready to transfer drug rehabilitation function completely to the Public Health Ministry. Authorities would proceed with the next step in the decriminalisation of methamphetamine, when the system is strong he said yesterday after a meeting of agencies including the National Command Centre for Drugs and the Public Health Ministry to discuss the findings of the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs. The assembly cited world currents shifting from the war on drugs to thinking of how to live with drugs. [continues 557 words]
Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya's Readiness to Declassify Yaba Signals a Sounder Strategy If national governments have learned nothing from the futility of waging a "war on drugs", in some countries at least, common sense seems to be finally seeping in. With several American states having decriminalised possession of marijuana and many more pondering the move, and with positive results emerging from European nations that have adopted softer stances on "street drugs", Thailand is now seeing light at the end of its long, dark yaba tunnel. [continues 563 words]
Has Thailand's tough policy on narcotic drugs created a monster out of methamphetamines resulting in the poor being punished with the heaviest sentences, and prison overcrowding? An article published on the online outlet Thai Publica in July last year by Mutita Chuachang about the need to rethink the country's policy on ya ba has resurfaced recently. The content is relevant to the Justice Ministry's controversial proposal to remove crystal meth from the illicit dangerous drug list and shift the drug policy away from heavy suppression. [continues 794 words]
The Proposal Would Not Decriminalise or Legalise Meth. Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya caused a major uproar with a statement out of the blue about the country's leading drug problem. The statement in question featured a proposal he presented at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs, known as UNGASS, in New York to demote methamphetamines from Category 1, the official designation of the most harmful and banned drugs, to the far more tolerant category. Like other controversial proposals in this country, this one on amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) has drawn mixed reactions. Some believe it will make the drug situation far worse, but others think the opposite. [continues 475 words]
The Justice Ministry's proposal to remove methamphetamines, or ya ba, from the illicit dangerous drug list is a bold attempt to tackle chronic drug problems in society. The move, as revealed last week by Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya, involves proposing an amended version of the narcotics law which would in effect destigmatise both drug users and small-time sellers to allow them reclaim their lives. It has attracted a mixed response. The bill, however, states punishments remains unchanged for drug dealers and those in possession of 15 methamphetamine pills or more. [continues 877 words]
In less than two weeks a rare United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on global drug policy takes place in New York. Among the issues to be debated and discussed many resonate in Southeast Asia, including the impact of drug production, trafficking and use on vulnerable countries, communities and people. Importantly, preparatory negotiations over the past year have created space for countries and policy leaders to reflect on the traditional "war on drugs" approach, but also prominently featured a debate on the need for justice reform and improved access to health services. [continues 606 words]
The United Nations is aiming to set a new macro policy on recreational drugs worldwide, starting today. It has taken almost a generation even to get to this point, which is the token beginning of a UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs. There are strong feelings emerging that the UN itself might even take a stand leaning towards legalisation of such drugs. A kickoff meeting this evening in New York will hear testimony, mostly from the pro-enforcement side. This is, essentially, Thailand's time to stand up for this country's policies on illegal drugs - or to call for changes. It is certain that after today's "interactive panel discussions" on the subject that a handful of Latin American countries and most of the 279 NGOs registered to attend will be lobbying hard on the legalisation side. Thailand and Thais are not prepared to go that far. Yet changes must be made. [continues 429 words]
As I have written before, human rights watchdogs estimate that 100,000 Mexicans have been killed in the past 10 years at the hands of drug cartels during the so-called war on drugs. That is an average of 10,000 people killed per year. On Saturday, the mayor of a town only 90 kilometres from the capital Mexico City was murdered less than one day after taking office ("Mexico mayor slain a day after taking office", AFP, January 3). The town, Temixco, is reportedly plagued by organised crime and rampant drug trafficking. Are there any "advanced countries" near Mexico that can help out? If not, would someone please tell Vladimir Putin about this? Guy Baker [end]
Regardless of What Our Self-Serving Leaders Say, the So-Called Wars on Drugs Have Been a Disaster Laws to deal with drugs offences drew international attention in recent weeks as rights groups, governments and family members called on President Joko Widodo to pardon a group of drug traffickers sentenced to death in Indonesia. But at the centre of debate was not Indonesia's drug problem, as Joko claimed. Instead, much of the attention focused on Indonesia's domestic politics, where capital punishment has become a tool used by politicians to shore up their power. [continues 537 words]
People Wrongly Jailed for Possessing Small Amount of Drugs, Academics Say IT IS HIGH TIME Thailand amends its drug laws so as to ease prison crowding and stop putting so many undeserving people behind bars, a recent seminar was told. Assoc Prof Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, dean of Rangsit University's College of Social Innovation, believes that more than 90 per cent of drug convicts should not be in jail. Speaking at the seminar held by his college, Sungsidh said a large number of drug offenders were sent to prison only because Thai laws made it possible for people caught with a very small amount of drugs to get a trafficking conviction. [continues 481 words]
Writing as a retired police detective, I heartily concur with your analysis of the drug war/drug prohibition. The smugglers ship a little extra toward their markets, knowing the authorities will confiscate maybe 20%. They also know when their mules are caught, they are easily replaced by men and women desperate for money. You must know that criminals love drug prohibition, since it guarantees them millions and billions in profits. If Thailand and other Asian countries want to strike fear and dread in the hearts of drug smugglers, join the growing number of voices across the planet that call to legalise/ regulate all drugs. The Mexican drug cartels are already vocal about how cannabis legalisation in Colorado is hurting their profits. HOWARD [end]
A couple of major developments have taken place against the backdrop of the battle against drugs. The two cases seem to illustrate the two extremes of this long fight. In Thailand, suit-clad officials from four countries agreed politely to set up an information-sharing headquarters. No one is in charge. The specific goals are not just unstated, but appear not to exist. In Indonesia, at the other end of the pendulum, prison authorities yesterday brought six convicted drug dealers - five of them foreigners - to the killing stakes for execution by firing squad. [continues 487 words]
In response to your editorial entitled "Drug war is flagging", on Jan 19, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Bangkok wishes to state the following: 1. Indonesia is now confronted by drugs and precursor abuse, an emergency that requires extraordinary measures. The Indonesian government in exercising its constitutional duty to impose stern actions within the framework of Indonesian laws against drugs-related offences which are regarded as one of the most serious crimes. 2. The execution has been imposed on anybody regardless of nationality based on strong legal evidence and through a judicial process. It is carried out as a last resort and only after all legal options have been exhausted, including appeals and requests for presidential pardons. The law stipulates that the death penalty is exercised in accordance with the level of the offence, such as that distributors, producers, and drug lords. [continues 120 words]
Reading the article "Punishments for drug offences to be reviewed" was like grabbing a cup of water after a long slog through a desert. How many young people's lives have been unfairly ruined by the draconian drug laws in Thailand and other Southeast Asian bureaucracies tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands? Thailand's drug laws follow those of the US note for note. America is slowly getting reasonable on that topic, but I'm surprised Thailand is following just by months instead of years. [continues 69 words]
The world's elder statesmen have a problem when it comes to drug policy. They are increasingly coming out in favour of broad legalisation, but their message is having a hard time getting through thanks to decades of anti-drug propaganda from the governments in which they participated. Three years ago, a group called the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report denouncing the "war on drugs" for increasing violence and failing to curb consumption. It got a lot of attention because its members included such luminaries as former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former United Nations secretary- general Kofi Annan, former US secretary of state George Schultz, former North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief Javier Solana and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. These are serious, powerful men, not potheads or irresponsible anarchists. [continues 481 words]
Three Bang Chan policemen who shot at a female university student's car during a drug bust have been transferred pending an investigation, said deputy national police chief Pongsapat Pongcharoen. Speaking to the media about the incident, Pol Gen Pongsapat said the officers have been re-assigned to administrative positions. Pol Sub-Lt Supot Toket, Pol Snr Sgt Maj Rassami Theptha and Pol Snr Sgt Maj Chamnian Khandaeng have been assigned to work at police stations under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Police Division 4. [continues 323 words]
LCT backs attempted murder charge Three Bang Chan policemen who mistook a female law student from Chulalongkorn University for a drug dealer and opened fire at her car should be charged with attempted murder, said the Lawyers Council of Thailand (LCT). Sunthorn Payak, deputy chairman of the LCT, said the three policemen shot at the car even though they knew someone was driving it. The people responsible for that had intent to harm or to kill, said the lawyer, who is in charge of providing legal aid for the council. [continues 515 words]
We Need a New Approach to Stem the Damage Being Done by the Narcotics Trade At roughly the same time the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime released its annual report on the narcotics trade, the London School of Economics (LSE), backed by five Nobel Prize-winning economists, issued another, calling for a change in mindset on the way the trade is handled. A global "war on drugs" was announced more than two decades ago, but to little apparent effect, with the trade even more lucrative and widespread now than it was back then. We are no closer to eradicating the problem, and that's mainly because the global community is fighting the wrong enemy. Governments policies have left the market in illicit drugs unregulated and users unprotected. [continues 421 words]
Two drug couriers were killed and 100,000 methamphetamine pills seized in two clashes between soldiers of the Pha Muang Force and a band of drug traffickers near the Thai-Myanmar border in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district on Sunday morning, according to force commander Maj Banjerd Changpoonthong. Maj Gen Banjerd said the clashes followed the deployment of combined teams of regular soldiers and rangers to border areas on suspicion that drugs would be smuggled across the border during the Songkran festival. [continues 167 words]
TWO American states have taken the plunge: Colorado and Washington recently voted to decriminalise possession, if you are over 21, of small amounts of marijuana (although you still can't smoke it in public there). But the White House is warning that these state moves are in violation of federal law the Controlled Substances Act which the government gives notice it intends to continue to enforce. Indeed, President Obama is thinking about more than a warning: he might actually sue the states, and any others that follow Colorado and Washington's leads. Pot legalisation proponents, however, point to the fact that the states' change in the law has been hailed by local law enforcement, because being able to leave small-scale pot users alone means freedup resources for police to go after violent crime. [continues 968 words]
3 get death penalty for 'war on drugs' murder Three police officers were sentenced to death yesterday for the 2004 murder of a 17-year-old during the Thaksin Shinawatra government's war on drugs. Kiattisak Thitboonkrong, of Kalasin province, was arrested in July 2004 for alleged motorcycle theft, but he was found hanged from the ceiling of a hut in Roi Et's Chang Han district days after being released from Muang Kalasin police station. His relatives suspected the teenager was a victim of extra-judicial killing, which was widespread during the war on drugs campaign between 2003 and 2005. [continues 627 words]
PHUKET: Following the reported drowning of a runaway student, the owner of the Por Noh Klong Gom School during a video-conference with Royal Thai Police Deputy Commissioner-General Adul Saengsingkaew admitted that "improvements" to the school's management were urgently needed. The video conference, at Krabi Provincial Hall on Saturday, was in reaction to the drowning and subsequent mass-walkout by hundreds of other students from the youth drug rehabilitation facility two days earlier. Joined by Krabi Governor Prasit Osathanon and Krabi Provincial Police Commander Jamroon Ruenrom, school owner Anurak Ginglek explained to Lt Gen Adul what had occurred and what steps he was taking to improve the rehabilitation center. [continues 186 words]
The United Nations Development Programme has just issued a report on the problem of Aids. A distinguished, 14-member panel spent two years compiling a 145-page report. It concludes that the major block in addressing the HIV and Aids epidemic is "punitive laws". It recommends wiping off the books all current and important laws on prostitution, and many that seek to control illegal trafficking and abuse of drugs. In short, it is a muddle-headed and poorly constructed recommendation which actually fails to address a hugely serious, deadly problem. Instead of treating HIV and Aids as a grave problem for families and communities, the two-year UNDP Global Commission on HIV and the Law considers the disease and its victims as problems in isolation. Its recommended help to actual and potential HIV/Aids victims is minimal, but many of its claimed solutions would cause serious harm to society at large. [continues 382 words]
KRABI : More than 200 drug addicts undergoing rehabilitation at a pondok school in Krabi's Muang district yesterday fled after learning their teachers and caregivers had allegedly beaten three rehab patients to death. The addicts escaped from the Klong Kam pondok school about 1.30pm. They converged on a mosque in the Ban Koh Klang community, located about 2km away from the school, to protest against the harsh conditions and the alleged murders of three men in rehab. Wasan Rodnual, 24, one of the escapees, said three addicts aged between 20 and 27 were beaten to death by the school's teachers and counsellors on July 23 after they tried to escape. The three were Muslims from the deep South, he said. [continues 208 words]
Police Think Attack Was to Avenge Key Arrests YALA : Five policemen were killed by a car bomb in Raman district Wednesday, in an attack which authorities believe was in retaliation for recent drug suspect arrests. The bomb exploded Wednesday afternoon as a pickup truck, carrying six drug suppression officers led by Pol Lt Sutham Onthong, was approaching a canal by the Wang Phaya-U Po road in Ban Buke Yaera, police said. The blast killed Pol Lt Sutham and four of his subordinates _ Pol Snr Sgt Maj Waeuseng Waedeng, Pol Snr Sgt Maj Chakkrit Chaisali, Pol Sgt Natthaphong Bunkomon and Pol Sgt Wichanon Namphakdi. [continues 482 words]
More than 37,000 students across the nation face an invasion of drugs, with many pupils and education officials trafficking addictive substances, it was revealed in talks at a high school yesterday. The information was unveiled during a visit from Deputy Education Minister Sakda Khongpetch and officials from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board and police at Satriwittaya School. The officials searched for drugs and randomly tested students and education authorities for substance use. It was part of the ministry's "White (clean) School" anti-drug campaign. [continues 288 words]
I Was Sitting in a Movie Theatre in San Francisco, California in 1974 Howling With Laughter As I Watched the Insane Movie "Reefer Madness", Which Was About the "Horrors" of Smoking Marijuana. I never laughed so hard in my life. Today, over 35 years later, the "war on drugs" is still a joke. But it's no longer funny. It's not funny when over 2,500 people - many who were not even connected to drugs - were murdered in extrajudicial killings during Thaksin's demented "drug war". [continues 189 words]
At first the tablets made life easier for Santhisuk: they helped him endure the long hours lugging heavy fabric bales in a Bangkok textiles factory. Gradually he noticed he was angrier and more aggressive on the days he skipped them. But it was only when arrested for a third time - and sent to rehabilitation at a Buddhist temple - that he admitted his addiction to methamphetamine. Now clean, the 19-year-old labourer is worrying about what will happen when he leaves the sanctuary of Wat Saphan and returns home. [continues 888 words]
Residents Resigned To Way Hit Movie Captures Sleaze That Makes Vegas Seem Tame BANGKOK-Thailand's tourism chief hasn't seen the Warner Bros. box office smash "The Hangover: Part II," which is based in Bangkok. Maybe that's just as well. "What's it like?" asked Supol Sripan, general-director of the country's tourism department, on a recent Thursday afternoon. Well, it shows his nation's capital as chock-full of drug-dealing mobsters, drunken bar fights and hazily remembered sex in the back rooms of brothels. In the movie there are also car chases through teeming streets, and a chain-smoking monkey. [continues 915 words]
Re: "Jail the drug dealers, free the users" by Jon Ungphakorn (BP, May 4). Perhaps the best example of drug war failure is the United States' experience with marijuana. Despite zero tolerance, the US has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. The drug war is a cultural inquisition, not a public health campaign. Children of drug war inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Not only do the children lose out, but society as a whole does, too. Incarcerating non-violent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in anti-social behaviour. [continues 87 words]
The war on drugs hasn't worked in Thailand and it hasn't worked at the global level. After 50 years of harsh drug prohibition enforcement policies throughout the world following the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the only people smiling are the drug dealers and the officials in their pay. The UK drug policy coalition "Count the Costs" (countthecosts.org) states that: "The war on drugs creates massive costs, resulting from the enforcement-led approach that puts organised crime in control of the trade." These costs are listed by the coalition as: [continues 892 words]
When the government recently announced its intention to embark on a new "war on drugs", it was answered by a loud chorus from many corners of society that there must not be a repeat of the 2003 campaign launched by Thaksin Shinawatra. That war on drugs has become notorious internationally for the more than 2,500 extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and a total disregard for the rule of law. The present government has taken pains to assure the public that there will be no replay of that dark chapter in Thailand's history. Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban pledged: "This government will follow the law strictly in drug suppression operations." [continues 658 words]
In an attempt to tackle the long-standing problem of drug dealings being run by convicted dealers, Ratchaburi's Khao Bin prison will be the first to get mobile phone jamming devices. Costing Bt50 million, the devices will be installed at eight locations on the premises to block phone calls between convicts and drug dealers. Even though the devices also disrupt the signals for prison officials and residents living nearby, no formal complaints have been received yet. Next year, the devices will be installed in Bangkok's Khlong Prem prison as well as the Central Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts in the same compound, Nonthaburi's Bang Khwang and Nakhon Ratchasima's Khlong Phai prisons, director-general of the Corrections Department, Chartchai Sutthiklom, said yesterday. [continues 158 words]
Video Spurs Questions Over Why Man Was Shot Repeatedly Human rights advocates called yesterday for a probe into the police's extrajudicial killing of the drug-dealer and highway-shooting suspect Charnchai "Joke Phaikhiew" Prasongsil on December 11. The posting of a video of the shooting on YouTube has spurred questions about why police shot the suspect twice when the situation appeared already in control. The Human Rights Lawyers Association, the Union of Civil Liberties (UCL), the Thai Coalition for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) and the Human Rights and Development Foundation yesterday issued a statement about the incident. [continues 552 words]
With an effort to amend the Constitution going on, we might as well propose the deletion of Article 39. This article states that a suspect or defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent, and that before the court convicts a person, he cannot be treated as a convict. This right has been repeatedly violated, and no one raises the issue. A case in point is the recent police news conference in which a drug suspect was thrown before a pack of reporters who had a field day abusing him verbally. The suspect dropped his head in disgrace, but a four-star police general gently pushed the man's chin up to face the snarling wolves. He even touched-up the suspect's tousled hair. [continues 52 words]
RATCHABURI : Inmates at Khao Bin prison will find it harder to run the drugs trade from behind bars after authorities installed mobile phone signal jammers there, as part of Corrections Department efforts to keep jails clean. Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga said eight jammers have been installed at the maximum security jail, which authorities hope will help stamp out the drugs trade flourishing behind bars. They were not powerful enough to disrupt phones in use outside the prison. The 50 million baht cost of installing the jammers at Khao Bin prison, in Chom Bung district, was funded by the Office of the Narcotics Control Board. [continues 174 words]
Few would argue that the country would be better off without the drug dealers, big-time and street corner variety alike. It is crucial, then, that the government proceed carefully on a promised new crackdown against the men and women corrupting the nation by selling illicit, harmful drugs. Ridding the neighbourhoods of drug peddlers is a goal that unites everyone. But the 2003 travesty of a "war on drugs" still haunts. Authorities cannot afford another human rights disaster and effectively combat the odious and harmful drug trade. [continues 477 words]
A government plan to launch a fresh crackdown on drugs is raising concerns among human rights advocates who fear a repeat of the mistakes which characterised the Thaksin Shinawatra administration's war on drugs. It is believed up to 2,600 people were killed, many in suspicious circumstances, during the 2003 campaign launched by Thaksin. Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday called a meeting of the National Narcotics Board to discuss the operational details of a new campaign aimed at curbing drug use and drug-related crime. Mr Suthep chairs the board. [continues 556 words]
Faced with an increase in the amount of drugs being smuggled into the country, officials are seeking closer co-operation with foreign agencies Thailand is in the middle of a growing drug war, and is not only confronting the problem on the home front but is also battling it as far away as the Middle East and West Africa. But the man at the centre of the fight against the illicit drug trade, Police General Krisna Polananta, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), concedes that despite the best efforts of government agencies and their foreign counterparts, the lucrative business is increasing. [continues 2616 words]
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will set up a committee to reinvestigate the extra-judicial killings of drug suspects during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration's war on drugs. Mr Abhisit announced the formation of the panel yesterday after being questioned in parliament by Chalerm Yubamrung, chief of the Puea Thai Party MPs. Mr Chalerm said that when Mr Abhisit was the leader of the opposition bloc, he accused Thaksin of committing crimes against humanity by ordering the extra-judicial killings of more than 2,500 people suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, during the war on drugs in 2003. [continues 200 words]
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop, some top officials and a lot of police officers crashed some of Phuket City's most popular parties on Friday night -- on the hunt for drugs and weapons. But those who fret about the loose morals of Thailand's youth of today will be relieved to find out the police came out empty-handed. Gov Wichai, Vice Governor Smith Palawatvichai, Phuket Public Health Office officials, customs officers and Phuket City Police took part in the raids at the Kortormor, Sofa and Blue Marina nightclubs. [continues 123 words]
An Australian man charged with drug smuggling in Thailand says he has made a "big mistake" and is going to "pay for it". Andrew Hoods, 36, was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport's departure hall on Wednesday afternoon with 3kg of heroin strapped to his body, Thai officials said. He was charged with drug smuggling after Thai Customs found the drugs concealed in 12 packages. Thai police said another Australian, believed to be a friend of Hoods, is on the run after managing to escape from the airport. [continues 233 words]
Inside Thailand
