US report says illicit Thai drug production has ended

Washington - The annual US report on worldwide drug trafficking says Thailand no longer produces illicit drugs in important quantities, but remains a major source of chemical smuggling and money laundering by cross-border drug gangs.

The report by the US State Department, produced every year for more than two decades, is yet another indication that Thailand has become a victim of drug traffickers over the past 20 years.

"There is no significant drug cultivation or production in Thailand," the report states flatly. Rather, lack of enforcement and trafficking by gangs in Burma "have  a devastating impact on Burma’s neighbours, especially Thailand."

The always straight-talking International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, however, does not exonerate Thailand or most other countries. For example, it charges that Thailand and 14 other nations - including the United States - are major sources for chemical percursors used in making illicit drugs.

In addition it names Thailand and 59 other countries as major centres for money laundering, abetted by official financial institutions. Again, the US is included in the list.

Without mentioning it, the US report effectively contradicted a recent United Nations survey, which expressed alarm that acreage under opium cultivation had increased in northern Thailand. "There is no significant cultivation or production of opium, heroin, methamphetamine or other drugs in Thailand today," it repeated at several points.

"The  uncertainties  of  the  political  situation  in  Thailand  have  not  adversely  efforts to combat drugs," it said.

But while local and out-bound Thai drug trafficking has all but halted, "various regional and international drug trafficking networks use Thailand as a transit point and sell drugs produced in Burma and elsewhere."

In addition, international crime syndicates based in Thailand and abroad both find the country attractive, partly because of its open borders and welcome to visitors nad tourists.

"Thailand is vulnerable to money laundering from its own underground economy as well as many categories of cross-border crime, including illicit narcotics and other contraband smuggling," the report said.

Since the mid-1990s, when US authorities figured that Thailand accounted for about one per cent of world opium output, the State Department reports have charted a steady downhill trend in drug production while documenting an equally steady rise in drugs smuggled into the country.

The report, unsurprisingly, was harsh on the western neighbour.

"Burma remains the largest source for methamphetamine tablets in Asia," it said. The State Department charged that the anti-drug laws are not consistently enforced, and it claimed that the Burmese regime has helped the United Wa State Army (UWSA, or Red Wa) become the pre-eminent drug gang in Southeast Asia.

"It is probable that higher level officials of the military regime protect  some  traffickers," the report stated without clarification, although it noted that Lt Gen Ye Myint, a former member of the ruling junta, resigned as head of  the  Bureau  of  Special  Operations  Number  1 shortly after his son was arrested on drug trafficking charges last year.

In addition to methamphetamines, Thailand has become increasingly targetted by smugglers of cocaine from South America and night club drugs. Cocaine, Ecstasy and similar illicit drugs are bought "by  well-off  abusers  and  foreigners,  and  most  often  found  in  private  residences  and  entertainment  places  in Bangkok," the US report stated.

Among the other neighbours, the US said it was highly concerned at the growing production of amphetamines in Indonesia and the "immense" use of drugs in the Philippines, but praised Laos for reducing its opium crop steadily until it is now at the lowest level since 1975.