Myanmar's shirked duty

Last Thursday, police arrested two men in Ayutthaya for possession of drugs. They were driving a pickup with 700 one-kilogramme bags of crystal methamphetamine, a so-called recreational drug without medical or social value.

To provide an idea of the international drug trade now centred in Thailand, abusers and addicts of crystal meth, or ya ice commonly use less than half a gramme per dosage. So 700kg represents a shipment of 1.75 million doses of the drug at a minimum. The seizure had a wholesale value in Thailand of about 2.1 billion baht. It is worth five to 10 times that abroad and in individual dosages about 100 times more.

It is telling that this was a minor newsstory last week. It made no front pages and most media buried it in the crime news, if they even bothered. The sad fact, however, is that such stunning disclosures have become routine. Anti-drug agents diligently perform their duties. They routinely seize millions of ya ba tablets, along with kilogrammes at a time of ya ice and heroin.