War on Drugs
Posted by Stuart at 10:24 AM on February 21, 2003The phrase "War on Drugs" has been around for a long time, but here in Thailand, "war" apparently means WAR.
Earlier this month, the Thai government declared WAR on drugs in Thailand. The Prime Minister promised that Thailand would be drug-free in three months. Laughable, right? Well, the police have gone on a rampage (I don't know what else to call it). After 19 days the results are: over 30,000 dealers and users have asked the goverment for rehab, 15,616 people have been arrested and 596 people have been KILLED. That's right, about 40 people have been killed in Thailand every day for the past two weeks. According to police reports, those involved in the drug trade are killing each other so that they won't be turned in to the police. There is also a big push to investigate over 700 goverment officials who are suspected to be involved in trafficking.
There are a lot of shocking numbers in that last paragraph. Perhaps not so shocking is what is happening to the price of drugs. Of course when the supply of a product is cut off, prices go up. The police are reporting that prices for methamphetamines have tripled or quadrupled all over the country.
Luckily, I haven't actually seen any of this -- just heard about it on the news and in the paper. It might as well be happening in a different country, but it's not.
WOW!!! No, kidding, Ian. The US is a big cuddly putty cat, that is declawed, deaf and blind.
I wonder what would happen if the US took this drastic action.
Where is all of this taking place, since you said you have not witnessed any of what you have read.
Love you!!
Oh my... I never responded to this comment until now. Opps.
The "War on Drugs" now seems to be over. Or at least it's not getting any media attention. Most of the action (I think) took place in the Northern Provences where there has always been a drug problem in large part due to the growing of opium, and the slums of Bangkok. Since I haven't visited the mountain regions that often, and I never venture into the slums (although my school is actually quite near one of the more notorious ones) I luckily haven't witnessed any violence. Whew!
Damn! Those are some amazing statistics... Kinda makes you feel like our drug war has been beating around the bush....
(Not that I support the us war on drugs... or "war" on any other abstraction for that matter.)
Guess we're stuck with the dumb ads about how smoking pot is supporting terrorists... How the terrorists are getting the money from rural NC farmers has yet to be explained...
Keep us posted on this one...