Davedub

I'd absolutely be asking for his resignation had he talked to me in those condecending tones. Anyone lacking social skills / EQ to that extent should never be given a public facing role.

The title says 'Cannabis fuelled' - am I alone in seeing zero connection between the arrest of someone for illegally entering buildings / overstaying his visa and the fact he was smoking weed just before he was apprehended? If he'd been having a beer, would the attempted escape have been booze fuelled? What about if he were having a coffee? What a strange reporting angle - it makes no sense to me at all!

I find the use of the word 'shocking' hilarious - is anyone in Thailand even vaguely shocked to hear that a government agency is corrupt here? It is well known that people here do not get promoted to decision making positions because of their skill set. People get promoted by either buying the position or through nepotism. This is why the rules created are so unworkable - they are created by people who are simply not qualified for the job. Then the rest of us (lower ranking govt officals included) are left to work with an unworkable system. The only way anything gets done is by sidestepping unworkable rules. So either the country grinds to a halt due to impossible bureacracy, or govt officials bend / break rules. If they are going to bend / break rules to help someone get a license / permit / whatever then they are taking a risk, so naturally they will want paying for helping out. The culture of corruption flourishes in an environment perfectly suited to it's creation. Hiring decison makers based on their qualifications for the job would make a great start towards fixing the situation. Until the the systematic, deeply entrenched culture of buying positions and nepotism is address properly, I guess we will continue to be regularly 'shocked' by revelations of corruption, each time believing the fairytale of an isolated incident.

I'd always assumed it was an American import - I remember my chagrin at what felt like deception during my first US trip when I found out all the prices in the supermarkets were incorrect - what you actually pay at the checkout has state and some sort of federal tax added. Coming from a country where the price you see is the price you pay, it seems like a very strange, unnecessarily complicated practice - please just tell me what the thing actually costs ffs, life is complicated enough!

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🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 With the high rate income tax threshold so low and the enormous bureaucratic burden, as a tech professional working here for nearly 16 years, I can say hand on heart that I choose to be here despite the 'intelligent policies designed to attract professionals', not because of them! Thailand is utterly crippled by bureaucracy. Until this is fixed, the cost, stress and uncertainty of doing business here makes Thailand extremely unattractive to us tech professionals. We strive for efficiency. The Thai bureaucratic system does the exact opposite. If I didn't love the people I find here, the scenery and the food, I'd go elsewhere, for sure. Anyone remember this gem? In 2017, Prayut set up a committee specifically to address and remove bureaucratic obstacles that were seen as impediments to economic progress. Net result: The committee was set up. I attended a BOI conference in BKK where Prayut spoke. He reported that over 1000 pointless licenses and permits had been identified within the Thai bureaucratic system. I had hope for reform. But then bureaucracy ensued and the committee was crippled. Nothing changed. I'd imagine we can expect the same result from the same action this time around...

I wish I'd known how much of my life would be wasted creating pointless sheets of printed paper for bureacrats who seem to revel in being given huge stacks of pointless printed paper on which they can stamp pointless stamps. The bureacracy here drives me crazy, but nowhere is perfect and I'll take pointless bureacracy any day over the overpriced living costs, hectic lifestyles, violent crime and generally miserable existence inherent to living in the UK.

Not that I'm aware of. However, I believe common sense and anecdotal evidence are sufficient for me to hold that opinion. To me, it's kinda obvious; There may be rare exceptions, but in general, no nicotine addict is going to stop using nicotine when going on holiday. Imagine chosing between two destinations with similar levels of comfort and tropical beauty at a similar budget. At one destination people are risking 10 years in prison for making a smart, informed, personal choice about their nicotine delivery system. At the other there is no such risk. Which destination would you pick? If the smoking rates per captia are then looked at (e.g. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/smoking-rates-by-country) and we see that adult smoker rates remain in the 30 - 50% range for many western and more wealthy eastern countries, then it becomes clear that a very large proportion of visitors to Thailand are nicotine addicts. Potentially criminalising such a large proportion of the visitors a country intends to attract doesn't need statistics to prove it's a bad idea. It obviously is.

Igorning the plain and simple fact that vaping provides nicotine delivery to nicotine addits with a fraction of the health risks, I wonder if the govt. has considered the negative impact on tourist numbers their vape policy is obviously having? I have UK mates for whom the dractonian vape laws here have been the 'straw that broke the camels back' when selecting a holiday destination. There are plenty of holiday destinations of a similar budget and quality to Thailand that do not use protecting children as an excuse to protect their tobacco monopoly...

Do they really think that people will stop using cannabis because they say so? Are they really that naive? Have they even considered that a program of education regarding the potential down sides might actually be a far more effective way of protecting public health? Do they not realise that illegal weed is far more of a threat to public health because it is unregulated and therefore usually contains pesticides at levels that really ought be illegal? Are they aware of the damage, stress, harm and suffering they are going to cause? Weed was everywhere before decriminalisation. Weed will be everywhere after reclassification, most likely even more so than before. Otherwise law abiding citizens will suffer because of this. One has to question either the motives or the competence of these lawmakers. They're either living in a fantasy world or they are pandering to corporate interests, there is no doubt.

I wonder if this is the best use of police resources?

'We' don't all know the addiction is self inflicted. Addiction is a disease, not a lifestyle choice. It may be worth considering the lack of good education / glut of misleading information about drink and drugs in general, the fact that many addicts became so before reaching adulthood and the soaring rates of (untreated) mental health conditions worldwide whereby the discomfort of the condition outweighs the perceived risk from taking a brief escape from what feels like endless, unbearable pain. No mentally healthy, well informed adult deliberately causes themselves serious harm. I personally am of the opinion that treating any sort of addict as someone who has inflicted their condition on themselves is counter-productive when it comes to treating their illness. Contemporary methods of treating addicts as people who are suffering from a medical condition are yielding far, far greater success rates than those that embody antiquated attitudes like victim blaming. The evidence is there in plain sight:

Big pharma puts way more research dollars towards alleviating symptoms instead of finding cures because it's more profitable to sell someone drugs that treat symptoms for a lifetime than to give them a one off-cure.

As a healthy, informed adult I thoroughly resent being told by a government what I can and cannot imbibe. No government has any business whatsoever doing so; it is my body and it is my choice, not theirs. I fully support a program of education for everybody and the provision of mental health care for people who may be at risk of drug harm. I do not support prohibition in any form; as history has repeatedly taught us, prohibition leads to greater drug harm, criminalises otherwise law abiding people and funnels vast sums money into the hands of criminal organisations. In the words of Einstien: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". I can think of no greater example of this than the ill-conceived idea of prohibition.

Synopsys: More ill thought out, unworkable bureacracy will be hurriedly put in place and poorly enforced by staff who have not been sufficently trained. Likely reality: More loopholes will be created by poorly thought out legislation. Bona fide customers will have their time wasted and will be met by different bureacratic requirements depending on different banks, staff and even staff moods. Multiple trips to the bank to open an account will be necessary as the bureacratic requirements vary wildly with each visit. Frustration and pointless timewasting will ensue. Criminal elements will continue their activities unabated using a fresh set of loopholes in the poorly conceived legislation coupled with the time honoured traditions of paying bribes and leveraging connections to influential people. Net Result: The only real change will be yet another increase in the bureacratic burden inflicted on Thailand's people and her guests.