Signs of Fatigue Appear
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/175.html#thailandIn the wake
of an agreement reached last year, US military forces
operating out of Chaing
Mai, in northern Thailand, are training
Thai troops in counternarcotics
enforcement in an effort to slow
the flow of heroin and methamphetamine
coming into the country
from neighboring Burma (Myanmar). There, the
rebel United Wa
State Army operates large-scale methamphetamine factories
to
supplement its traditional role of Golden Triangle heroin
broker.
Thai authorities consider methamphetamine the nation's
most
severe drug problem, with the number of users estimated at
one
million, with 200,000 to 300,000 in Bangkok alone. They
accuse
the Wa Army of smuggling meth tablets by the hundreds of
millions
annually, and reported seizing 25 million tablets last
year.
But even as the Thai military ratchets up its endless war
against
drug smugglers, signs of fatigue and frustration have begun
to
appear within the country's political class. At least twice
in
the last year, highly-placed politicians have called for state
control
or legalization of the methamphetamine trade, and last
week the Thai Interior
Minister announced that he would institute
a program to remove drug offenders
from the country's prisons and
instead rehabilitate them.
The first
crack in the wall came nearly a year ago, when Man
Patanothai, assistant
secretary to the interior minister,
suggested the Thai government sell
methamphetamine at low prices
to drive traffickers out of business and to
lessen the social
harm of addiction.
"I have talked with US drug
experts who suggested an eye-for-an-
eye approach," he told the Bangkok
Post. "The state can sell
methamphetamine at 15-20 bhat (roughly 40 to
50 US cents) a pill
through its hospitals and clinics, but every buyer must
also buy
curing pills. The US government will support the idea if we
dare
implement it," he said.
Man's assessment of US support for a
legalized meth market is
clearly misinformed and his resort to "curing pills"
that do not
as yet exist is somewhat quixotic, but his
pronouncement
represented a startling paradigm-shift in a country that
has
traditionally responded to drug use and trafficking with severe
prison
sentences in legendarily nasty prisons. There are
currently 130,000
people serving time on drug charges in
Thailand.
Man blamed the
escalating campaign against methamphetamine for
jamming the country's prisons
and suggested that officials ease
up on young users to help stem prison
overcrowding.
"When methamphetamine was made a grade 1 drug like heroin,
anyone
caught with a few pills ended up in jail," he said.
"Teenagers
should be given rehabilitation and put on probation so they
can
hopefully return to the right path," Man added, "but if they go
to
jail, they may become cruel criminals because prisons are hell
on
earth."
Man also brazenly referred to police corruption, asking
the
police to refrain from planting drugs on people they dislike.
"The
righteous performance of the police could also help relieve
prisons," he
added.
A few months later, Man's notion got a second when Senator
Kavi
Spathira called for legalization of amphetamines. The senator,
a
member of the senate's government affairs committee, told the
Thai News
Agency in October that state stores should sell the
drug.
"The
government should set up drug stores nationwide to sell the
drug at one baht
a tablet to control the supply and demand of the
drug," he told Interior
Ministry officials.
Kavi said such a policy would undermine the United Wa
State Army,
which has been giving Thai authorities fits for years even
as
they have moved aggressively to reduce opium production at
home.
"The Wa would be severely hurt by this measure," he
said.
Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon didn't mention the Wa
last
week when he announced the plan to move drug offenders out of
the
prisons and shift enforcement emphasis from users and small-scale
drug
sellers to big-time traffickers. Instead, he spoke of
prison
overcrowding and the need for rehabilation -- not jail --
for drug
addicts.
"Prisons are meant for serious criminals. We will propose
new
ways for the courts to punish petty criminals," Purachai told a
press
conference in Bangkok.
It doesn't appear, however, that Thai drug
offenders can now
expect Betty Ford Center-style help. They will be
sent to
military and police bases, Purachai said, and supervised by
police
or soldiers. It is not known what sort of drug treatment
capabilities
the Thai police and military possess.
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