THE WEEK THAT WAS Sex and Drugs and Lock and Lol - another crazy week in Thailand lockdown

[rooster59]

 

It was good to see this week that 8,000 prisoners would be released and have their convictions quashed for having an innocuous cup of tea, something us Brits prize above almost all else.

 

Kratom tea to be precise - the drug is being removed from the narcotics list. It’s a step in the right direction but Thailand can do so much more to empty the overcrowded jails and fulfil promises to bring a bit more happiness to the beleaguered people.

 

The pussy-footing around with marijuana is a case in point. The recreational use of the plant’s THC component needs to be decriminalized. By all means control it - some of the powerful strains available these days need to come with both a government health warning and strict dosage control. 

 

Tax it but don’t deny its benefits. It’s not just the oil that is good for health, mental well-being can be gained through educated use of the entire plant that is a gift from nature. Even in today’s more liberal climate it continues to be unfairly vilified, even demonized by biased fools who want to impose their views on others. 

 

So far in Thailand people are essentially allowed to put unpleasantly tasting hemp leaves on omelets, make noxious green shakes that taste repulsive, all part of a pathetic face saving nod to progress.

 

Bhumjai Thai leader and current health minister Anutin Charvirakul has sold out on his election promises. His wealthy cronies are the only ones who will benefit from allowing plants to be grown that feed into basic oil and extract pharma controlled by him. 

 

Of course even in Thailand where penalties remain severe there is a huge sub-culture of “ganja” use and edibles like gummy bears are widely available. But reports suggest users do not really know what they are getting and therein lies the problem rather than the use of the drug itself. 

 

Alcohol - an infinitely more dangerous drug - always has its strength clearly labelled (unless it’s my father in law’s hooch he calls sato). This obviously helps us gauge how much we should imbibe a point that is just as important in ganja’s myriad products. 

 

If anything it is alcohol in all its forms that needs to be more strictly controlled. The Thai authorities pay lip service to this by coming up with absurd restrictions like 2 pm to 5 pm bans at shops and no alcohol sales at gas stations, restrictions on certain public holidays, blanket bans on advertising. 

 

Strangely, restaurant and pub bans during lockdown probably make more sense due to Covid-19 spread - it’s not just Thailand that has followed those protocols. But not MUCH more sense. 

 

At the risk of being accused of imposing my views on others,I would like to see more control of alcohol among the young, more penalties for bar owners who continue to serve people who are drunk, far greater penalties for drunk drivers who kill innocent people, for example.

 

Having worked as a translator for ASEAN NOW for well over five years I have lost count of the times alcohol abuse has resulted in assault, murder and death. Why not a single one for someone ‘crazed’ by marijuana?

 

Of course, this is the abuse of the alcohol drug - for a drug is what it is; thankfully most people can control themselves or at least represent no severe danger to others. 

 

Drugs like Ya Ba (methamphetamine mixed with caffeine) that is ubiquitous in Thailand and “ice” or crystal meth are widely abused. But their illicit trade is responsible for diverting billions of baht in resources in a futile attempt to curtail their use. 

 

The drugs are flowing into Thailand and thence onto third countries by the billions from meth labs in Myanmar and Laos. The profits are incredible, associated crime immense but most of this stems from their illegality. The trade fills Thais jails far more than Kratom or ganja.

 

I’m not advocating doing nothing about this scourge - for scourge it can be in communities where Ya Ba and ice misuse results in serious crime and family problems especially in Thailand’s villages.

 

But is it not time to at least pay some heed to the model of a country like Portugal (famously featured in Michael Moore’s documentary about countries that do better than America) where even heroin is decriminalized and people who can’t control drug use are helped rather than punished? 

 

Even sex this week - and how to control it in these Covid times - was top of the news in another amusing week of laughing out loud (lol) on ASEAN NOW amid the lockdowns that have become so normal that we’re forgetting what life was like pre-pandemic. 

 

In Rooster’s first translation of the week I had to get a Kleenex regarding a sex story. No, not that…..it was uncontrollable spluttering of coffee over the keyboard that was to blame. 

 

The Thai Health Department chief Dr Pheerayuth came up with nine things we need to do to stop Covid spread including wearing a face mask during sex.

 

Needless to say there were a few likes on my translation but I was slightly miffed that my editor - perhaps mindful of propriety and having the site descend into a relation of the UK’s “The Sun” - thought better than to include ALL the recommendations. 

 

Daily News referred to this in their headline, no less, as “pratuu lang” or backdoor. (Cue Rooster searching  for a Catherine Tate video about homosexual Derek who was shocked at suggestions that he had his groceries delivered via this portal).

 

This aspect of the story was not missed on some posters who like yours truly have the benefit of being able to read Thai and understand the true extent that Thais can dip below the belt contrary to their apparent and superficial, conservative social mores!

 

Non-Thai speakers who accuse Thais of being two faced don’t know the half of it, a situation that dawned on me as early as the 1980s when able to understand some of the ribaldry at the now defunct Villa Cafe.

 

I recall an exchange I had with Note Chern Yim, perhaps Thailand’s most enduring comedian who continues to this day but who was a regular in Villa Cafe’s heyday. 

 

Picking on me as the only farang in the audience I’m sure he was delighted that I was able to offer a witty retort that amused the audience and was even clapped.

 

Before he tore me to pathetic shreds resulting in Rooster smiling inanely pretending to understand but unable to offer another reply!

 

It is a sad fact that even to this day, with my upper intermediate to expert Thai spoken skills, I understand many Thai jokes…..until the punchline.

 

Continuing my drug theme it is interesting to note that research into the beneficial effects of psilocybin (the active ingredient of what Thais call “het khee khwai” or buffalo pooh mushrooms) is picking up pace abroad. An excellent Netflix documentary about mushrooms is worth looking at in this regard. 

 

Psychadelics are now believed to have powerful and beneficial effects on anxiety and alcoholism, to name but two. The advantage over more mainstream pharma is that only two or three hits are needed to effect a lasting cure.

 

Who knows, Thailand could become a hub of ‘shroom research what with the prevalence of “khee khwai”. Just a pity that most of it seems to be emanating from the mouths of the bods at the TAT.

 

I trust  they weren’t tripping at the time when they came up with their analysis of the potential trips to Thailand of foreigners next year.

 

In a ThaiRath story this weekend they predicted three scenarios - Best Case, Base Case (whatever that means) and Worse (sic) Case. 

 

The analysis was that 18,13, or 10 million foreigners would, along with domestic tourists, part with 1.9, 1.6 or 1.3 trillion baht. 

 

I am prepared to eat my Tottenham Hotspur cap should I be proved wrong but I sense that the world will not be ready for mass tourism on that scale next year. 

 

Reports that 19,000 foreigners have arrived in Phuket in six weeks (seen by some as positive) and about ten a day (yes T-E-N= 10 = sip na khrap) have arrived in Samui per day tend to indicate that the TAT might like to reassess.

 

Yes, 2022’s end of year high season could, just could be a massive turning point. So could further waves of virus or shifting patterns of tourist behavior not to mention shifting locations favored by tourists. 

 

On the plus side there must be a huge amount of money available. Contrary to what some doom-and-gloomers online would have us believe, not everyone in Thailand or around the world has lost their job or is preparing to rob 7-Eleven in desperation.

 

People who have kept their jobs have had nothing to spend their money on for the best part of two whole years. 

 

Banks everywhere including in Thailand are reporting increased savings. Admittedly in the accounts of the more well to do than the poor but these are just the people that the TAT - QUALITY tourists they call them - that they are trying to attract with their buzzwords. Somchai laid off by the factory is not their tourist, neither is the man or woman on the dole in the UK. 

 

They mean to tap into the huge reserves of cash held by potential tourists if and when they do decide to travel. I repeat my assertion that when business does get up and running post-pandemic it will be boomtime. 

 

However, 2022 looks more of a transitional year to me especially as the Brave New Vaccine World adjusts.

 

Apropos, there appears to be an ever increasing prevalence of what I would call “Vaccine Snobbery”. ASEAN NOW is as full of it as Facebook with people denigrating certain vaccines citing spurious evidence while praising the efficacy of others spouting nationalistic untruths and prejudice. 

 

Having received a dose of AstraZeneca in Thailand I was interested in the comments of government spokeswoman Traisuree who responded to Thai press suggestions that locally produced AZ might not be deemed as good by European governments as that produced elsewhere when it comes to visas and visits.

 

As someone who wouldn’t mind hugging my UK based kids for the first time since 2018 and not wanting to quarantine it was good to see comments about AZ being the same everywhere and at least France and Germany accepting the Thai made vax. 

 

Whether this will be true of everywhere or whether nationally sponsored Vaccine Snobbery becomes engrained remains to be seen, however. 

 

In pandemic related stories this week Anutin continued to pluck Pfizer doses from the ether and records were broken almost daily in overall numbers (well over 20,000 now) and even deaths (mostly around 200). 

 

Sanook published a list of ten things everyone should know and Sandbox Schools were even proposed.

 

These would entail frequent antigen tests for staff and pupils in a bid to get some opened under a pilot scheme. Please do! 

 

At the end of the week lawyers for a TV celeb who lost his job armed with a 700,000 name petition went to the corruption court in Bangkok to charge Big Too with dishonesty in his handling of the pandemic. A ruling is expected at the end of the month but don’t expect a custodial sentence!

 

Following Uncle’s failure to gag the media from writing anything scary, he and head honcho Anutin are trying to get everyone off the hook for their mishandling through amnesties and immunity (they found out that word when they got their early jabs!)

 

Yes, the ever changing nature of the pandemic has made fools of us all at times, but some of those in power have gone further and must be held accountable for their reckless and possibly criminal actions. 

 

Meanwhile, the anti-government protests continued on the streets of my beloved Krung Thep. Tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon were deployed and some protesters threw ping-pong bombs. One 14 year old had his hand half blown off by a powerful firework that some claimed had been pushed down into his hand, a notion strenuously denied by the police. 

 

Parts of the capital resembled warzones with fire and mayhem, though for most of us living in Bangkok you could hear a pin drop. 

 

Rooster headed off to Big C thinking that I hadn’t been out since my vax on July 25th - nearly three weeks. Eggs cost 109 baht a tray and the checkout ladies were standing outside their stations beckoning the few shoppers in. The run on supplies seemed to be a thing of the past.

 

Down in the resort, as Bernard Trink used to say of Pattaya, the expected pilot reopening on September 1st looks cancelled until next year while the ferry to Hua Hin that never got a chance to become popular is now history. 

 

QUOTES - the Queen Of The Eastern Seaboard - is suffering indeed and for that and all who sail in her I am truly sorry. 

 

Finally, it was revealed that the chief of the Royal Thai Police general Suwat Chaengyodsuk had assets and savings of 104 million baht despite a current yearly salary of only 1,466,154 baht.

 

Blimey, I thought, in much of two decades as an international school teacher I earned well in excess of that annually and I saved all I could. 

 

Yet my savings in the bank and assets are a pittance in comparison. 

 

Oh, I know.

 

I had two more children; that explains it. 

 

Rooster

 

-- © Copyright ASEAN NOW 2021-08-15

 

[Scrotobike]

"Having received a dose of AstraZeneca in Thailand"

I guess you don't live in Issan?

[Andycoops]

As soon as I see a headline with the initials TAT in it I automatically pass on to the next subject because of the utter tosh they spout about tourist numbers and money.

[Gottfrid]

Even if I am no fan of the weekly column, I must this week give it to you Rooster. Great headline!

[rumak]

1 minute ago, Gottfrid said:

Even if I am no fan of the weekly column, I must this week give it to you Rooster. Great headline!

i would guess someone else might have given it to him.    through the back door ?  ????

Edited August 15, 2021 by rumak

[Solinvictus]

15 minutes ago, Andycoops said:

As soon as I see a headline with the initials TAT in it I automatically pass on to the next subject because of the utter tosh they spout about tourist numbers and money.

No kidding, gese.

[BostonRob2]

11 minutes ago, rumak said:

i would guess someone else might have given it to him.    through the back door ?  ????

Please do not cast aspersions regarding Looster's ling. 

[rumak]

1 hour ago, Gottfrid said:

Even if I am no fan of the weekly column, I must this week give it to you Rooster. Great headline!

I actually like parts of the column....... except when he complains about people that don't see things

his way .    Good headline today.    He does have a way with words.    Wayward , some times as well.

[BostonRob2]

15 minutes ago, rumak said:

I actually like parts of the column....... except when he complains about people that don't see things

his way .    Good headline today.    He does have a way with words.    Wayward , some times as well.

Wayward Lad would be a good alternative name for Rooster if he is ever rumbled....Wayward Lad was one of the finest steeplechasers of the 1980's before he was put out to grass abroad ????

 

[Speedhump]

23 minutes ago, Scrotobike said:

Here in Sisaket there appears to be no vaccines. I am sure some were distributed once. For sure Sinovac.

Sorry to hear that. In Hua Hin the queue moved for the first time in weeks. Just 2000 more numbers called yesterday. No idea if that's all for a few more weeks.

 

I won't accept Sinovac, which has the reputation of being quite ineffective against the Delta variant. Of course, the Chinese refuse to tell us anything despite by now having much clinical evidence. That says something about the vaccine I think, eh? That country is a menace. 

Edited August 15, 2021 by Speedhump
Speeling

[Stevemercer]

Speaking prisons, and prisoner releases, I am reminded of my brother-in-law. He and 2 others were caught smuggling yaba. They each received 20 years, but the 2 others had pleaded guilty and copped 10 years. Because they where eligible for amnesties they were released after 5 years.

 

My brother-in-law has now been in jail for nearly 10 years with no sentence reductions so far. The family had convinced him to please guilty on the basis they could pay for a lawyer and get him off. No such luck.

[MUSTYJACK]

Hey Rooster,  why dont you write a column telling us all how fluent you are in Thai and how much money you have saved over the years.

 

Never let modesty get in the way of a good article!

[Rocking Robert]

If you invest wisely and take  some chances wealth will come your way. Congratulations to the man Unless you can prove otherwise

[Fortean1]

Rooster, I agree that 'Mary Jane' should be licensed and taxed.  My introduction to MJ was in Vietnam in 1971.  The heroin abuse had been in full swing for at least two years.  In 1974, stopped using as my security clearance was Above Most Secret, U.S. Above Top Secret, and NATO use of COSMIC Top Secret.  Alcohol and the harder drugs like speed and heroin are a catastrophe.

[Stargeezr]

Rooster, thanks for another great news column,  You always have news stories that I missed on my reading of the forum

and other news papers like Bangkok Post. I see you still have all sorts of critics, detractors, and other people who just have to disagree

to make themselves feel good,  but Thanks for your good work.  

Geezer

[A1Str8]

Who said Kratom was illegal. I always considered it perfectly legal. 

[yankyoakum]

Look forward to your Sunday blogs. As we used to say back in the day, Lock an Loll or Rock and Road, its all the same to me...

[ScotBkk]

I thought the headline was excellent. However I never had five hours to read the rest of it because I would have to stop for naps all along the way. It’s pretty mundane I must admit or is it just me?

[charliebadenhop]

I really liked your writing. Thanks so much!

 

Actually psilocybin could be a great money maker for Thailand at some point, if people were running residential programs that utilized the mushrooms along with meditation and mindfulness exercises..

 

But your comment about two or three exposures being "enough" is strongly lacking in nuance. 

 

But thanks again. I hope to see your writing again in the near future.

[Sambotte]

Very good and interesting post. First time i read article here, but i will look for it.

 

Yes it may looks long. But one in a week is worth it, and such intelligent post is rare imo (everywhere).

 

I happen to just have read (for the 4th time) "Le comte de Monte Cristo" from Dumas, a perl, very long, very excellent. There is mention of cannabis actually, but not with much accuracy.

 

To fully legalize it is very obvious (i mean, even medecine says it's good, that's something... ????).

(parano-complotist mode on) except it would be a LOT of money to miss for... let's say many corrupt people in charge... And for big pharma.

Business as usual...

 

Psylocibe is indeed a very interesting medecine, on rare and controlled experiences. 

There are a few must see documentary about it.

 

Salute from Colombia guys, i have been lucky (or wise) to pick-up still-free countries since the begining of the panic (Thailand, Mexico, Colombia, in that order) and just (by chance here) in timing with the numbers of covid cases.

But i miss Thailand !!!!!!!!!! ????

Sadly it does really not look like they actually want tourism to resume anytime soon.

I am a high net-worth traveller, let me come back, pleaaaase ????(i mean like normal tourism/traveller/expat business, without all those infamous lockdown, assurance, quarantine, pre-autorisation, immigration randomness, and the so many no-go hurdles...).

That said, as a French, not been back since 10 years, i am ashamed of my country pretending to be a democraty and the country of "les droits de l'homme"... Would be hilarious if not so sad and so bad...

[Puccini]

On 8/15/2021 at 7:02 AM, Andycoops said:

As soon as I see a headline with the initials TAT in it I automatically pass on to the next subject because of the utter tosh they spout about tourist numbers and money.

You must have had a bad dream. The title (headline) of this topic does not have TAT in it.