Mekong awash with drugs | Bangkok Post: news

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Mekong awash with drugs

Traffickers look to new routes

Illegal drug smuggling along the Mekong River is growing rapidly with "mules" wearing special shoes and swimmers who carry guns and bombs.

Along the natural border between Thailand and Laos the US Drug Enforcement Administration is now engaged on a new battlefront to stem the flow of illegal substances.

The US DEA has been working in Thailand for years to counter the upsurge in drugs _ especially methamphetamine, ice (crystal methamphetamine) and cannabis _ smuggled into America from certain Asian nations through Thailand, concentrating mainly along the Burmese border and the Golden Triangle.

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About the author

columnist
Writer: Wassayos Ngamkham
Position: Reporter

Your comments

  • Discussion 6 : 01/08/2011 at 07:05 PM6

    Discussion 4: You did the activity wrong. You probably did chest breathing. It's hard to explain without a visual element. As for being in a dreamworld, you're right. Because I have dreams and apply the Law of Attraction to them, I don't have to work ever again.

  • Discussion 5 : 01/08/2011 at 05:03 PM5

    Sad but true... Illegal drugs = Big (big) money $$$... legalizing drugs is NOT preferred by those getting rich. I do not think that it will happen any time soon or easily.

    Penalties: Drug use (by users) often becomes a physical, psychological and/or social addiction. This is a medical, psychological & sociological problem. Treated as a 'crime' & punishment, it leads to horrible results. [Ever read about a Thai drug prison?]

    Finally, Cannabis ('pot') is not a manufactured drug. It is a plant with proven medical use. To incarcerate smokers is unconscionable & ineffective. It's use in Thai cooking & culture goes back centuries. It was not illegal until the USA began their between the wars scare tactics (watch "Reefer Madness") backed by paper and materials manufacturers who feared the competition from hemp, a superior natural product.

    Learn your history!

  • Discussion 4 : 01/08/2011 at 02:16 PM4

    D2 Just tried it, gives me nothing. You try to be spiritual but would like to have kids on death sentence for some pills? Stay in your dreamworld. Fact is, that nearly all kids want to try something new for them (alcohol,drugs,cigarettes and sex). Pressure of friends also will do it. Most parents are helpless. If you insist of heavy punishment for drugs, I want it for any kind of alcohol too. Half of the population will be gone. Thailand is already full with drugs thanks to the corrupt police and high level bureaucrats. Keep your spirit in your bottle.

  • Discussion 3 : 01/08/2011 at 11:55 AM3

    1. The death penalty is not an appropriate response to drug crime. Thailand has already been instructed by the UN Human Rights Council that the only possible crime which could be subject to the death penalty is premeditated homicide
    2. Reread the article. It points out that the death penalty fails as a deterrent for drug crime, as it does for any other crime.

  • Discussion 2 : 01/08/2011 at 09:07 AM2

    If drugs were legalized, as seemingly many people want to happen, you can imagine the torrent of ya bah, ice, heroin, etc. pouring into Thailand; and the consequences. As long as people lack spiritual depth, you must make them fear the Law and the consequences, and I would like to see anyone proven to be selling even just a handful of pills given the death sentence or a life sentence of hard labour - whatever makes people scared to even think of selling a ya bah pill.

    If you want to give yourself a burst of long-lasting energy, just press your palms together and breath very quickly through the stomach (it's called stomach-breathing)for 10 seconds. You won't need to take even an energy drink.

  • Discussion 1 : 01/08/2011 at 08:28 AM1

    It seems that the dead sentence kills both drug runners and Thai officers.

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