Davedub

"As if arresting this guy 'saved' anyone." - agreed. The availability of all these drugs will not be affected in the slightest. For every one person caught dealing in any given place, countless others are still in business. But all the people who have no idea of the actual scale of adult recreational drug use worldwide will all feel like something has actually changed. Political points are garnered. And so it continues. "MDMA is a party drug, ketamine a weird-ass anaesthetic clinically used for depression" - hmm - I'd say both are party drugs. In small amounts, Ketamine is highly halucinogenic, a fact most often ignored by those jumping on the "why they are taking that? It's a horse traquiliser!" bandwagon. "the drugs, every one of which is harmless" - I can't agree with this; cocaine is addictive, I've seen the havoc it can cause to people close to me in the past. Ketamine can also prove addictive and heavy use often leads to both mental health issues and serious, permanent bladder damage - you can see the old 'K-heads' walking around the UK music festivals in summer, complete with their colostomy bags attached for the rest of their lives. But MDMA and hash - yup - I am in 100% agreement with your "so what?" on those. Since we're on the subject, I will take the opportunity to get onto a soapbox and have my usual rant: But none of this detracts from the real issue; that being that drugs won the war on drugs, decades ago. The proof is plain as day - drug harm has done nothing but increase since Nixon started his fateful folly back in the 60s. The damage to people's lives and society in general this ill advised approach continues to mount, year on year. Drug harm is a serious issue that affects drug abusers, their families and society in general. Most drug users do so responsibly having done their research. Drug abusers generally fall into one of two categories: 1) Those with untreated mental health issues for whom the side effects of their drug abuse do not (initially) outweigh the relief from the suffering and symptoms of their health issues. Of course, the 'relief' can only ever be temporary, but any addiction or other health issues picked up en-route will linger, long after the 'positive' effects have faded. The initial escape turns into a prison. These people need medical attention, not a criminal conviction. 2) Those who are not sufficiently informed about the substances they are taking and so unknowingly expose themselves to uncessary risks like addiction, overdose or losing control by taking too much and winding up doing something really, really stupid or dangerous. As I have said many, many times in these forums, if we are to tackle drug harm in all seriousness, we need to forget the fairytale in which a magic wand called "hang em high'' or "lock them up and throw away the key" or "coming down hard didn't work, let's come down even harder" can cut off the supply of drugs. These sort of naive, reactionary approaches have done nothing but criminalise the actions of otherwise law abiding citizens worldwide, thus creating misery, breaking up families and causing more harm and suffering than the actual drugs themselves. Do the world's policy makers honestly think that stopping the occasional shipment and locking up some desparate mule is really helping anyone? In the words of Einstien: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" Criminalising drug use, has not, does not and will not ever reduce drug harm. This is a fact. The real solution lies within increasing public awareness around both the nature of drugs (addictiveness, toxicity, warning signs, long term side effects) and most importantly, the need for the provision of effective mental health care. It is a sad fact that the majority of drug addicts (and other drug abusers) are suffering from undiagnosed (or untreated) mental health conditions. They are simply trying to numb their pain - and due to the current global policy towards reducing drug harm, have only unregulated, sometimes contaminated drugs of random / unknown strength and purity available. Past attempts at education have all failed for one simple reason - they lack any sort of credibility. In true political style, condecending, out of touch messages that insult people's intelligence are foisted upon us. I grew up in a society that told me cannabis was a gateway drug to heroin! The utter failure of past drug awareness campaigns can be put down to real people living in the real word hearing the 'messages' put out by our oh-so-smart policy makers and instantly calling bull<deleted>. Southpark embodied this effect in a now well know meme quite some time ago. "Just blindly believe us when we say drugs are bad, because we are wise and you are stupid" is the message received, regardless of intent: It is also worth noting that no well informed, mentally healthy person would deliberately cause themselves harm - so when people inflict drug harm on themselves we have to ask why. The answer more often than not includes either ignorance and / or a need to numb pain. The cost of effective mental healthcare and education programs would be far, far less than the billions of tax dollars squandered by governments all around the world every year by authorities still clinging to the absurdly naive notion that locking up the occasional dealer / mule / user will actually reduce drug harm. It has not, does not and will not. /rant

Fantastic idea - let's send all the recreational users back to the black market! A thriving black market will help the Police low wage situation enormously. Plus think of all the health benefits cannabis users can expect from going back to buying unregulated products. This is sheer genius!

I think it's important to realise this was a freak accident caused by sub-standard lithium ion batteries. The fire risk is inherrent to all lithium ion batteries - electric cars also sometimes explode for example. It's relatively rare for well made, certified lithium ion batteries to explode. The risk reward balance has long since been deemed acceptable by the powers that be. Of course in this instance, it's likely that the vaping gear's battery was not certified as it was purchased on the black market created by Thailand's vaping policy. As a nicotine addict myself and if it were my grandson, I'd more likely try to point out the sheer annoyance and inconvenience of being a nicotine addict. In addition to the cost, not being able to relax after a meal in a restaurant or to comfortably watch a long movie in a cinema, feeling harassed by authorities for my personal choice of nicotine delivery system - these are the real, everyday reasons why I wish to dear God almighty I'd never started. The health risks posed by vaping do not phase me at all - I know for a fact it's far, far more damaging to my lungs to spend significant amounts of time in any polluted city.

Let's keep it real here. This is the direct result of the proliferation of unregulated devices. Why are these devices unregulated, untested and unsafe? Because of their legal status. As ALWAYS happens when the authorities try to ban something that is in common, everyday use, a black market forms. There is no regulation - so incidents like this are bound to occur I personally put the responsibility for this man's death on Thailand's ill advised vaping policies; vaping is banned, it goes underground and is therefore unregulated. The direct result is that people die as a result of using sub-standard, untested devices But hey, at least the current legal status of vaping products protects the huge profits generated by Thailand's tobacoo monopoly. It is obvious that profits are prioritised over people's well-being This is, quite frankly, a disgusting situation

Whilst this is 'old news' internationally, it is still a very important message to keep getting out there It is too easy to not realise the pretty much catastrophic effects excessive porn use can have on a man. As with so many human vices, education around the issue is sorely lacking. It's good to see the issue getting more airtime.

Thank you!

Your compassion for people desparately and naively trying to self medicate their mental health issues because they have no access to mental healthcare is heartwarming As is your compassion for uneducated children who had no idea what they were getting into until it was too late Yes, you are right - oversimplified solutions for deeply complicated and nuanced problems always yeild fantastic results Or perhaps society should not ignore the problem and instead address the causes of drug harm with the provision of mental healthcare and education? I'm with you on the total liberalisation though - treating a medical and educational issue as a criminal one has clearly been a disaster and continues to be doomed to failure

It's important to distinguish between drug use and drug abuse Drug use is (mostly) harmless, especially when undertaken by well informed, mentally healthy people Drug abuse is a symptom of somethine else; desparate attempts to sooth the symptoms of untreated mental health issues being at the top of the list. Providing an escape from high levels of discontentment and stress being another Drug harm is mostly due to drug abuse and rarely from drug use. This is a very important distinction to keep in mind if the goal is truly to effectively reduce drug harm to both individuals and society as a whole

Either is fine - the goal is to get a professional, accurate eye test and then buy a pair of glasses If the prescription comes from one place and the glasses from another then that's ok - we're just looking for the best option and are flexible

Genuninly asking for a friend! Does anyone have a recommendation for a good optician on Phangan or Samui?

For me, it's good to see something has been done about the availability of a glass of wine with a meal If they could also do something about the ridiculous price / quality ratio caused by the outragous import duties on wine I'd be a whole lot happier

How refreshing to hear a smart, informed and realistic opinion on the subject. The only thing I'd add to this lady's argument would be to outline the need for more accessible and effective mental healthcare, as a huge proportion of drug abuse / drug related problems stem from people with untreated mental healthcare issues seeking relief from their symptoms. If it were in my power, I'd nominate this lady for health minister in a heatbeat!

Ah the Thai authorities approach to anything that doesn't belong in a Disney movie; try to control it, label it, put it in a pigeonhole, create absurd amounts of legislation and bureacracy around it and finally give it rubber stamps. Lots of rubber stamps, that'll fix it. Net result - nothing changes except the authorities feel like they're in control again. Yawn. Next.

The point is that cannabis 'crimes' have no victim - so in fact calling them crimes is ridiculous. Whatever people choose to do in their own homes, whether considered a 'crime' or not, should depend on whether or not it causes harm to others. This was his (very good) point. I question the right of any authority to tell any mentally healthy, well informed individual what they can and cannot eat / drink / smoke in the privacy of their own home. This is far beyond the remit of any government and action needs to be taken to prevent this sort of gross over-reach. It's simply none of their business.

This is my point entirely - the headline reads "The Department of Land Transport has proposed a rule requiring all foreigners to pass a written test, even if they have a valid international driving permit." I have assumed that by "all foreigners" they are including tourists. So I would say that this has everything to do with tourists. As you say, I also can't imagine tourists doing a written driving test just so they can hire a motorbike during a two week holiday.

In other news; Thailand is concerned about reduced tourist arrivals with so many visitors now chosing Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and the Phillipines over Thailand. So making Thailand even less accessible by further increasing the bureacratic burden on visitors doesn't sound like a very good idea at all to me. There's also an underlying arrogance to this move; they're essentially saying they don't trust the standard of driving tests from other countries. Having completed both UK and Thai driving tests for both cars and motorcycles, I am of the opinion that UK driver skill level requirements are far higher. I wonder how long it will take for enterprising Thais to start offering an express 'license service' whereby the necessary paperwork can be obtained with a phone call and 2000 Bhat? Hopefully the authorities will realise the daftness of this move before they 'put yet another nail in the coffin' of their golden goose (20% of GDP). But Thailand is as Thailand does; logic doesn't always seem to be the primary motivator.

Alcohol is indeed a dangerous drug. However: Education and the provision of mental healthcare would absolutely reduce the harm caused by alcohol. A scaling up of the enforcement of existing laws for drink driving would also make a huge difference Prohibiton always results in the creation of black markets. Prohibition thus funnels huge sums of money into the hands of criminal enterprises that often have little regard for quality control issues. This often leads to people getting poisoned by unregulated bootleg booze Historically, banning drink (or drugs for that matter) has consistently failed whilst simultaneously leading to the formation of the largest criminal enterprises in human history (e.g. The Mafia, the South American drug cartels) These are the realities of the prohibition theory, as borne out by the last 100 years of history The reality is undeniable. It's time to look at alternative measures. In the words of Einstien: "Repeating the same action over and expecting different results is the definition of madness"

It's refreshing to see a pulling back from the 'solve alcohol related issues by using a broad stroke, heavy handed control' approach. Issues like problem drinking are better dealt with by treating the underlying cause of alcohol abuse - treating mental health issues or eduction on more effective, healthy coping mechanisms for stress being good examples of this. Issues like drink driving are best dealt with by targetting offenders (as opposed to implementing broad stroke reductions in alcohol availablity). Better enforcement of current drink driving laws is the obvious solution. It's good to see progress in what I'd consider the right direction.

There is one thing that is holding back investment, foriegn businesses and people visiting Thailand in the medium to long term - unecessary bureacracy. Starting with the need to fill out my name, address, passport and phone number multiple times on many types of visa / permit applications and culminating in inch-thich piles of pointless paperwork for anything more substantial. Discovering that single items of documentation require another ten pages of other documents from other government agencies feels like a normal part of many processes. Every application I have to make fills me with dread. In my 17 years in Thailand I have wasted so much of my given time on Earth producing needless paperwork. I mean, where do they keep it all? I am entertaining the theory that Thailand actually has power stations entirely powered by burning the tonnes and tonnes of pointless paperwork they force visitors to produce - it's the only possible good reason I can think of for making us do this stuff! Really though, the bureacratic hurdles presented at every step of any 'official' process in Thailand are, for me, by far and away the worst thing about living in Thailand. Time is the most precious thing any of us possess. To have it wasted on pointless bureacracy should be a crime, regardless of the country.

The dual pricing at hospitals is the big issue for me. When I see the procedure I'm paying for can be profitably performed at a fraction of the price for a Thai it leaves me feeling ripped off and disrespected.

I have been using Google Sheets, Google Docs and Open Office for many years now. I only really use Open Office Calc for quick calculations that I don't intend to keep - i.e. to avoid clogging up my Google Sheets folder. I understand that Microsoft Excel might be the only solution for deep statisical analysis and other 'advanced' functionality - beyond that, I have no idea why anyone would ever pay for Microsoft Office.

I suspect that many travellers will not get this done three days ahead of their arrival. I imagine a certain amount of chaos at Suvarnabhumi with travellers needing to find somewhere to stay for three days on the wrong side of the immigration counters. Or perhaps people will not be able to board at the departing country unless they can show a valid digital arrival card? Either way, I am not convinced this scheme is going to enhance visitor support or ensure a smoother arrival experience in Thailand.

It seems to me that if the OP had paid then his son would be in the position of having seen his father haplessly going along for the sake of getting along. I think the son witnessed an excellent lesson in maintaining boundaries and maintaining self respect. Learning that part of that process is that when you stand up to people they may bad mouth you is also a valuable lesson.

How on earth are people supposed to 'respect authority' with the boys in blue pulling stunts like this? When did handcuffing become standard practice for arresting people for non-violent crimes? Has somebody been watching too many American cop shows on Netflix? It'd be laughable if this act of bullying were not so disrespectful, pointless and utterly disgraceful. Yet more tax payer's money wasted on yet another blow to public confidence in the police. Who will protect the people from the protectors? Police over-reach like this constitutes an abuse of power, pure and simple. I sincerely hope whomever made the decision to make these arrests has their career cut abruptly short, are made to explain themselves in court, are forced to make a public apology and are personally sued for every single penny they have to their name. At a minimum.

Addressing soaring PM2.5 levels with an effective plan and followup action would have far more positive impact if addressing public health concerns were actually the motivation here. I wonder how many people actually believe public health concerns are the real reason for this crackdown?