Dogmatix

Although he was promoted like Trump as a businessman who understands economic management, it has become very apparent this time that he either no longer understands anything about economics, or that he never did but had much better advisors to cover up his ignorance in the past. His economic policies including handouts, land bridges and other utter nonsense have all turned out to be total flops.

This government had plenty of opportunities to introduce regulation for the cannabis industry but did nothing until they felt the need to get revenge on Anutin. Taking down a 40 billion baht industry, causing huge losses to those who have made legal investments is pointless. People lose jobs. Farmers lose livelihoods and the government loses tax revenue from a business that was paying VAT and other taxes. Now it all goes underground. Regulation yes but destruction motivated by political spite no. It all shows how pathetic this Thaksin government is.

Thaksin getting desperate seeing his power and influence crumbling away again. His much vaunted 'signature policy" of hand outs was a complete failure along with his land bridge, casinos and oil and gas deal with Hun Sen. His half half travel hand out has collapsed too. Now he wants to re-run his war against drugs that played well a quarter of a century ago. That was all for show, as police just murdered small dealers from drug gangs in competition with the police and many complete innocents. Drugs didn't go away because they protected all the big fish.

See gangs of subcontinental men on Walking Street bargaining the price with katoeys. Most just laugh at them and don't do a deal but some do.

How to be vigilant, other than avoiding Thailand?

These will be a great attraction on Childrens' Day moored next to the aircraft carrier that has no planes and is too expensive to take out in the bay for a spin. It would be much cheaper for the taxpayer, if the bribes were just paid to the corrupt military and ;politicians without having to buy the useless junk.

Thai customs has a room full of suitcases confiscated from tourists, mainly Brits, who were caught trying to smuggle cannabis out of Thailand. Since it it not currently a serious offence in Thailand, they are either released without charge and minus the dope and luggage or get a modest fine. Unlucky for her and the British girl in Dubai they were caught there and not here. Still gotta be a bit intellectually challenged to take the risk of smuggling drugs, specially to countries like Georgia and Dubai where penalties are strict, prisons awful and the justice system dubious, Before legalisation the story was about Brits smuggling cigarettes back to the UK from duty free shops in the Mid East.

Thaksin's grandchildren or great grandchildren will be queuing up to take their turn at being PM to do nothing about flooding or anything else constructive by then.

The OP forget to mention the first day of his trial for LM coming up in July in a case brought by the Thai military, based on the accusation that he defamed the monarchy in an interview given to Korean newspaper. Given that he is a known flight risk, it would be advisable for the court to place him on remand during the trial.

...to jail.

It is very unclear but the announcements made so far could easily be interpreted to mean that overseas income is taxable in Thailand, unless remitted to Thailand in the tax year it arose or the following year. That would be effectively global taxation which they claim (falsely) is required by the OECD but with exemptions money remitted in the stipulated period. It seems the latest regulation allowing exemption for income earned before 2024 will be wiped out which is tough luck for anyone who sold investments in Dec 2023 to create a long term stock of money that can be remitted to Thailand. If it is indeed a global tax, there would be a loophole, unless it has to remain in Thailand for a certain period, in that investors could remit the money out again immediately. It also seems simple enough to create a transaction on even earn interest on a bank deposit to able to remit the income tax free. The RD clarified last time that principle could be remitted tax free. If still true, anything can be remitted tax free. If not true and only the income can remitted tax free, they will not attract the trillions they hope for because the principle will be left overseas.

The article says prostitution is illegal in Thailand but is not really true. The 1996 Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act only makes prostitution illegal in certain circumstances. Soliciting in public so as to cause a nuisance is prohibited. Operating or managing a prostitution business is illegal. Profiting from the prostitution of others (e.g., pimping, brothel-keeping) is a criminal offense. The VN hookers may well be bothering people in the street which is clearly illegal but It is a hassle for cops to get good enough for that. Passers by will not give evidence. So the cops have to do it. In the past to prove the girls (East Europeans in those days) were really soliciting for sexual services, cops actually had sex with them, arested the girls when they had finished and knotted up the used condoms to present as evidence. (I think there was a queue of cops at Lumpini police station volunteering for this dangerous mission confronting violent criminals.) There was a big outcry from Thai women's groups arguing the cops had created the crimes themselves as agents provocateurs. There was also an outcry from the wives of the arresting officers who were named in the media. Ha ha. So the cops were forced to abandon these fun crime busting missions. Nowadays, if they take action against foreign hookers at all, it is most likely to be for visa violations. The cops don't like to admit prostitution is not really illegal in any meaningful sense the same way as they pretend smoking weed in public is specifically illegal. It is not but smoking anything in public is illegal under the Public Health Act, if it causes a nuisance and someone complains. So it is actually a fairly similar concept of illegality that makes it hard to get convictions. So cops don't usually try in either case.

I remember visiting Pnom Penh many years ago and hundreds of VN hookers had moved in the years following Wun Sen's takeover at the head of a VN army.

My question too. For public safety the article should be specific about areas and bars VN prostitutes are operating, so we can avoid falling prey to their siren calls.

Exactly. Charlotte Leek came back to England from a trip to Thailand then flew back saying she had been offered a job in Thailand with flight and expenses paid. The job involved flying off again a few days later carrying 46kg of weed to Sri Lanka, presumably on route to the UK or somewhere else in Europe, since weed is widely cultivated in Sri Lanka and must be a lot cheaper there than in Thailand. So she set off with an extra two suitcases packed by someone else and was given cash to pay for the excess baggage at Suvarnabhumi. Pretty obvious that she knew she was smuggling something illegal but thought the money was worth it. She had been an air hostess for TUI and was a part time beautician in nail bar. So probably not very bright but, even so, it must have been obvious that something was wrong, even if she didn't look inside the suitcase. Weed is fairly bulky and has a strong aroma which sniffer dogs can't miss. The other English girl in Georgia is only 18 and pregnant. She was going to start a nursing course but that will have to wait for for a decade or more probably now. Not sure of the details of her case but it sounds like she had 14kg of dope and may well have known what it was. The extra bags may have been a red flag to Sri Lanka customs but what these kids don't understand is that the drug networks often grass on some of their own mules as part of a deal with authorities to let most through. Also very young travellers with odd itineraries are often a red flag. Doing two trips to Thailand in quick succession and flying to Sir Lanka or Georgia afterwards, particularly, if full fare, may look suspicious. Years ago two English girls were busted smuggling heroin out of Thailand. Thai cops said they were alerted by British cops who had seen their itinerary flying full fare from Bangkok to West Africa to the UK as odd and tipped off Thai police. The British cops checked their profiles and found they were unemployed which further heightened suspicions. Having pleaded they were set up they got Royal pardons on account of their young ages and went back to England to tell the tabloids they knew all along what they were smuggling.