"War on Drugs" - Only one year not two behind bars

[webfact]

Picture: INN

 

INN quoted the head of the Narcotics Control Board Wichai Chaimongkhol as saying that drugs offenders who used to get two years would now only get one.

 

This means more chance for rehab.

 

This came as the corrections chief admitted that 82% of the country's 289,000 were in for drugs.

 

Most of them are small time dealers, hapless mules or users. The prisons are hotbeds of Covid.

 

They can have their sentences reduced after the new rules came in Thursday. 

 

INN published a picture that appeared to show the chief holding a bag of weed. 

 

Wichai pointed out that the new rules gave more power to the authorities to seize assets including bequests and dowries. 

 

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[Bluespunk]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

This came as the corrections chief admitted that 82% of the country's 289,000 were in for drugs.

 

Most of them are small time dealers, hapless mules or users.

You cannot win a war on drugs if the only people you are jailing small-time dealers, mules or users.
 

There are always more people to fill their places. 

 

And even if you do get those at the top it’s debatable whether you can win such a “war”.

 

They are also easily replaced. 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Bluespunk

[wombat]

20 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

You cannot win a war on drugs if the only people you are jailing small-time dealers, mules or users.
 

There are always more people to fill their places. 

 

And even if you do get those at the top it’s debatable whether you can win such a “war”.

 

They are also easily replaced. 

Portugal has succeeded in the war on drugs yet no one talks about it.
why is this so?

[Bluespunk]

12 minutes ago, wombat said:

Portugal has succeeded in the war on drugs yet no one talks about it.
why is this so?

Portugal is not waging a war on drugs. They have instead opted for a policy that makes sense and works. 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Most of them are small time dealers, hapless mules or users. The prisons are hotbeds of Covid.

If they stopped arresting and jailing the mules and followed them to the Bosses it might have a better result.

[ed strong]

Its a big business in Thailand! The same drugs go round and round, filling the prison system with small players and and the gf / wives of the dealers also go down in Thailand.

 

The vast majority of these are entrapment situations, my ex thai boxing trainer was selling drugs for the police!

 

The Portugal situation where they decriminalised the personal possession of all drugs. Thats not a war on drugs its allowing the personal usage of it, although you can still get in trouble but its widely ignored.

 

Portugal prisons have 15% occupancy from drug related crime

 

Thailand at 82% = Ridiculous.

 

 

 

 

[Thingamabob]

The so-called war on drugs is a huge waste of time and money. For example, the DEA in the USA has achieved nothing over many years. Just jobs for the boys and brown envelopes going in all directions.

[brucegoniners]

I still think dealers should get long sentences. Otherwise you're encouraging it.

 

It also depends on what kind of drugs we're talking about.

 

Yaba should be prosecuted to the highest extent of the law. Pot not so much. In fact they should legalize it like so many states in the US are doing. Collect tax revenue on it. This country could use the money after covid.

 

And if an inmate has been a model prisoner then yes, release them early. Again, it depends on what crime they're in for.

[Credo]

The war on drugs has been one of the biggest busts of all time.  It has been a colossal waste of money, government resources and resulted only in shattered lives.   And it's not just drugs doing the shattering.  It's the judicial system as well.   

 

I am inclined to think the time is approaching for simply decriminalizing and legalizing virtually all drugs.  Addiction is a health problem and that's the system that should handle it, not the legal system.  

 

Anyone looking at the role of the legal pharmaceutical companies in the US Opioid crisis can see the drug problem is not going away.  There is simply too much money to be made.  Legalize it, regulate it, tax it.    

[Oxx]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

drugs offenders who used to get two years would now only get one.

 

This means more chance for rehab.

Surely there is more chance of rehabilitation in two years than in one.

[steven100]

just what Thailand needs ....  more drug addicts on the loose.

Send them all to the Philippines,  Duterte knows exactly how to rehabilitate them.

[mtls2005]

This is a win-win-win-win for the PtB, and with lesser sentences they'll be able to increase turnover 100%.

 

The skim on distribution, the skim on shakedowns - just ask Joey F., keeping young adults "happy" on drugs who might otherwise get up to no good.

 

That 82% of those jailed are in for drugs is very, very telling. It (drugs, use, distribution, enforcement, prison) has become institutionalized, and thus corrupted.

 

 

 

19 hours ago, webfact said:

Wichai pointed out that the new rules gave more power to the authorities to seize assets including bequests and dowries. 

 

Paper or plastic?

 

What could go wrong.

 

[ThaiFelix]

19 hours ago, hotchilli said:

If they stopped arresting and jailing the mules and followed them to the Bosses it might have a better result.

Shooooosh!  You get into trouble talking like that around here.

[Andycoops]

Yet again a policy that highlights the poor citizen paying the price, all be it for a crime, while the kingpins sit at home unmolested raking in the dosh and handing out the envelopes to keep it that way.

[Sydebolle]

Dealers and mules = death sentence. I promise you the number of the afore-mentioned will drop to a one digit percentage for sure! 
Once the children and grandchildren of the "phuyais" come down on drug addiction you might stand a chance of some improvement on the execution (pun intended) of the law! 

[ftpjtm]

23 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

Dealers and mules = death sentence. I promise you the number of the afore-mentioned will drop to a one digit percentage for sure! 
Once the children and grandchildren of the "phuyais" come down on drug addiction you might stand a chance of some improvement on the execution (pun intended) of the law! 

Doesn't work when the dealers and law enforcers are one and the same

[ThaiSmarterThanYou]

10 hours ago, steven100 said:

just what Thailand needs ....  more drug addicts on the loose.

Send them all to the Philippines,  Duterte knows exactly how to rehabilitate them.

 

What we are sure Thailand doesn't need is people like you who understand nothing and dogs and drug...

 

Whatever you post is factually totally wrong, you should be looking for a hole...

 

 

[ThaiSmarterThanYou]

6 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

Dealers and mules = death sentence. I promise you the number of the afore-mentioned will drop to a one digit percentage for sure! 
Once the children and grandchildren of the "phuyais" come down on drug addiction you might stand a chance of some improvement on the execution (pun intended) of the law! 

hahahaha another pro war on drugs that even USA accepted is lost.

Don't you feel ridiculous old man ? you should...

 

 

[chickenslegs]

10 hours ago, Oxx said:

Surely there is more chance of rehabilitation in two years than in one.

The way I look at it is that the prison system is overwhelmed. By halving the number of drug offenders inside, there may be more opportunity for educating/rehabilitating them.

 

 

[connda]

Legalize weed and you eliminate 30% or more of the 83% of the prison population who are locked up on drug related charges.  Then try the Portugal model and offer the users of hard drugs (meth, heroin, coke) rehabilitation in medical facilities.  Redefine what a trafficker is and isn't.  Someone moving kilos of hard drugs is a trafficker.  Concentrate on the supply not the street level idiots selling a few pills or other small amounts to support a habit.  They need intervention and medical treatment.  Not prison.
If Thailand embraced a Portugal model they could very literally empty their prisons.
If they legalize marijuana they could create an economic boom for regular Thais who could then cultivate cannabis and hemp for domestic use and export.  Instead they make it a closed business model where only connected individual can profit in a highly regulated industry that primarily benefits the wealthy with friends within government while threatening the average public with - prison - should they attempt to grow the plant.  That's simply greed.

[TooMuchTime]

Keep them locked up.  You don't want Thailand looking like the streets of SF or Kensington Ave.