Thai justice minister praises narcotics law change: LESS yaba around but more marijuana; don't take it abroad

[webfact]

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Comments made by Thailand's justice minister Somsak Thepsuthin yesterday and reported by Thai Rath indicated that the minister was delighted with the change in the law to remove marijuana from the Class 5 narcotics list on June 9th.

 

The minister quoted figures that suggested there were 100,000 less drug suspects compared to last year.

 

He said the overall narcotics picture was significantly improved due to the new law. 

 

Even methamphetamine mixed with caffeine - what Thais call yaba - cases were down with 550 million pills seized last year and only 342 million this year. 

 

Marijuana was more prevalent with 43,714 kilos last year and 50,622 this year. The Narcotics Control Board has indicated that more is coming in from neighboring countries. 

 

Somsak warned about inappropriate marijuana use especially amoung youth and advised his compatriots not to take the drug out of the country where laws are not liberal like Thailand and where stiff penalties are still in place. 

 

ASEAN NOW notes that this report was very poor from Thai Rath. The precise timeframes for the minister's assertions were unclear with reporters perhaps not questioning the minister more fully to get to the finer details. 

 

It appeared more as an example of praising government policy without grinding down into specifics, we suggest.  

 

However, the overall tenet of praise from the government was the tone, albeit coming from one of their own. 

 

 

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[bobbin]

This is the back-story to the recent liberalization of Cannabis..

 

In 2016 the then Justice Minister of Thailand, General Paiboon, returned from a closed-door UN Narcotics meeting and declared the consensus view.. The Drug War was lost and society must learn to live with various substances..

 

Not long afterwards, he was appointed a member of the Privy Council, whose job it is to advise the King of Thailand. I'm sure his advice remained the same..

 

The current Justice Minister is obviously of the same view. One might expect, given the relatively easy passage of the removal of Cannabis from the Narcotics Act that it has the support of the "establishment".

[Farmerslife]

According to my wife (the fount of all knowledge ????) yabba can now be bought for 20 baht a tablet in our local village.

 Apparently the dealers have been forced to cut the price to remain competitive with the ready availability of ganga.

 I dread to think what they use to cut the methamphetamine. 

 It's a downside to the liberalisation of cannabis that I don't imagine was conceived when the relaxation was enacted.  

[bobbin]

 Methamphetamine will be "decriminalized" in the near future..

 

General Paiboon addressed this issue at the time.

 

The problem is that the most effective way to wean meth users off the drug is gradually reducing the dosage under medical care. The problem is that this is not possible under current law. The restrictions are so comprehensive that even Medical Doctors have no legal means to access Methamphetamine for the purpose of treating addicted users.

[BritManToo]

All recreational drugs should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

Let those who want to harm themselves do so, but remove their need to commit crimes against the rest of us.

Without drug profits, criminal gangs will have less impact on society. 

Without drug laws, crime and prison numbers will be reduced.

[cnx101]

59 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

All recreational drugs should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

Let those who want to harm themselves do so, but remove their need to commit crimes against the rest of us.

Without drug profits, criminal gangs will have less impact on society. 

Without drug laws, crime and prison numbers will be reduced.

Agree except yaba makes them crazy and do attack other people and do a lot of damage, opium should also be legal, Sherlock Holmes used to smoke it haha

[kevinsan]

Like Covid, drugs are an endemic disease we all must learn to accommodate.

[Jimbo2014]

Thailand's drug policy is sadly a carbon copy of America's drug policy.  The abominable failure of the war on drugs should be publicly recognized and debated.  Policy desperately needs to turn towards decriminalization and treatment rather than prosecuting users.  Criminalization only encourages illegal sellers, punishes users, floods the streets with dangerous contaminated drugs.  A mad insane conflict started by Nixon the ideologue to target anti Vietnam war protesters.

[vandeventer]

57 minutes ago, cnx101 said:

Agree except yaba makes them crazy and do attack other people and do a lot of damage, opium should also be legal, Sherlock Holmes used to smoke it haha

The only drug I take is caffeine in my coffee, and Sherlock couldn't fined his a-- if it was on fire.

[Snig27]

4 hours ago, bobbin said:

The current Justice Minister is obviously of the same view. One might expect, given the relatively easy passage of the removal of Cannabis from the Narcotics Act that it has the support of the "establishment".

It is currently for sale in J Avenue Thong Lor. It doesn't get any more establishment.

[WinterGael]

4 hours ago, Farmerslife said:

According to my wife (the fount of all knowledge ????) yabba can now be bought for 20 baht a tablet in our local village.

 Apparently the dealers have been forced to cut the price to remain competitive with the ready availability of ganga.

 I dread to think what they use to cut the methamphetamine. 

 It's a downside to the liberalisation of cannabis that I don't imagine was conceived when the relaxation was enacted.  

Yabba is an upper, pot a downer.  People use the two for different things.  Have a yabba, drive all night.  Go home and eat a pot cookie to fall asleep. Sad.

[Deserted]

I can't see them ever legalizing the Class A stuff. There would be a lot of policemen out of a job and being transferred if that ever happened. Class C they may legalize more of but they won't with the class As even though its been out of control for decades now. 

[San Fran Dan]

Thank You Thailand, Very Progressive Thinking 

[Old Croc]

12 minutes ago, WinterGael said:

Have a yabba, drive all night.

Like the bus drivers just before they plummet off a mountain.

 

Just talking about the price with the missus this morning - just over 10 baht locally. A close reli is alternating between working for hours in the sun, sleeping for 14 hours or playing on his phone for 4 or 5 hours at a time without moving from a squat. Used to be fairly well built, played soccer, now rake thin. 

[Deserted]

Yes you could call it that but whether anything will happen, that's another matter. Highly unlikely I'd say. 

[mrfill]

4 hours ago, Farmerslife said:

According to my wife (the fount of all knowledge ????) yabba can now be bought for 20 baht a tablet in our local village.

 Apparently the dealers have been forced to cut the price to remain competitive with the ready availability of ganga.

 I dread to think what they use to cut the methamphetamine. 

 It's a downside to the liberalisation of cannabis that I don't imagine was conceived when the relaxation was enacted.  

Yabba is incredibly cheap to produce and is highly addictive. There is little point in cutting it with anything as whatever could be used is likely to be more expensive than the yabba itself.

It would be like diluting lao khao with finest Napoleon brandy.

[Lacessit]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

All recreational drugs should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

Let those who want to harm themselves do so, but remove their need to commit crimes against the rest of us.

Without drug profits, criminal gangs will have less impact on society. 

Without drug laws, crime and prison numbers will be reduced.

Agreed, all the evidence from countries that have decriminalised drug use is the police have far less work to do.

Having said that, I would enter the caveat any drug user that commits a crime doesn't get to use the BS excuse they were under the influence of drugs; they get sentenced as if they were stone cold sober.

I am not so sure about meth. It's wrecking rural communities in Australia, and by all accounts it is the most prone among the illicit drugs to induce psychosis and violence, which might have been why the Allies and the Germans in World War II were issuing it like candy. The Germans called it Fliegeshokolade.

[herfiehandbag]

2 hours ago, vandeventer said:

The only drug I take is caffeine in my coffee, and Sherlock couldn't fined his a-- if it was on fire.

True, but I suppose the opium made it feel a bit less less sore!????

[RocketDog]

2 hours ago, vandeventer said:

The only drug I take is caffeine in my coffee, and Sherlock couldn't fined his a-- if it was on fire.

You do realize that Holmes is a fictional character. Who he was and what he did was the sole purview of the author. You can't change that.

Throwing shade on a fictional character is silly. Witness Ted Cruz flaming Elmo on Twitter.

[Reposed]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

only 342 million this year. 

In a country of sixty-some-million, he should be proud.

[Reposed]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

All recreational drugs should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

Let those who want to harm themselves do so, but remove their need to commit crimes against the rest of us.

Without drug profits, criminal gangs will have less impact on society. 

Without drug laws, crime and prison numbers will be reduced.

And human trafficking should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

[LukKrueng]

4 hours ago, cnx101 said:

opium should also be legal, Sherlock Holmes used to smoke it haha

Not only that opium was legal in Europe, but England actually forced it on China where it was illegal...

[LukKrueng]

26 minutes ago, Reposed said:

And human trafficking should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

In a way you're right. If the traffics humans want to traffics and do the jobs they're sent to do - nothing wrong with it. The problem is that many are tricked and forced into something they don't want to do and are being kept prisoners, and that should remain illegal and must be stopped 

[Lacessit]

47 minutes ago, Reposed said:

And human trafficking should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

False equivalence, humans choose to take drugs. They mostly don't choose to be trafficked.

[PETERTHEEATER]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Even methamphetamine mixed with caffeine - what Thais call yaba - cases were down with 550 million pills seized last year and only 342 million this year. 

How can seizing a smaller number of pills be judged a successful reduction in drug offence cases? ????

[freedomnow]

4 hours ago, WinterGael said:

Yabba is an upper, pot a downer.  People use the two for different things.  Have a yabba, drive all night.  Go home and eat a pot cookie to fall asleep. Sad.

Even sadder if you use a pot cookie to drive all night, and yabba to sleep....

[ericthai]

1 hour ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

How can seizing a smaller number of pills be judged a successful reduction in drug offence cases? ????

The year isn't over yet, just a little over halfway.

[zzaa09]

Just Say No.

[bobbin]

35 minutes ago, zzaa09 said:

Just Say No.

Is that you Nancy?

[FarangULong]

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

All recreational drugs should be made legal, and therefore cheap.

Let those who want to harm themselves do so, but remove their need to commit crimes against the rest of us.

Without drug profits, criminal gangs will have less impact on society. 

Without drug laws, crime and prison numbers will be reduced.

I don't have an issue with people doing drugs itself, I have an issue with the crime that goes along with it, depending on the drug.

Sure, it's not much good to lock people up purely for having the drug on them/taking it (if it's in quantities that are obviously for personal consumption, not for dealing), I agree with that sentiment.

But people who are on certain highly addictive drugs, that require them to constantly come up with money to finance their habit, usually turn to either prostitution (that's more women though, but not exclusively) or violent crime in order to finance it.

It starts out with petty crime like thieving, then gradually becomes stuff like robbing people and/or breaking into homes and shops etc. And if they're really itching and someone is trying to be a hero or hardman might get himself stabbed or killed, for not wanting to give up the 30 € he has on him and/or his mobile.

THAT is where my problem lies. I'm an ex junkie (opiates, and because we have a relatively liberal drug rehabilitation policy that allows easy access to a lot of substitution medicines I ultimately got hooked faster and worse on those than on the cheap, boshed up heroin I was buying from the Africans at the subway train station) but I was a comparitively high functioning one (I committed very little crime, and those I allegedly committed I targetted dealers, not random people) who held down full time jobs for years and was mostly able to hide it from his family.

But that's not the case for most. A lot of the people I was "friends" with (more like affiliated co-drug users, in reality, since most people are no longer capable of true friendship when the drug always ends up coming first) or knew are either dead from overdoses, in prison/multiple prison stints behind them, with very few who got clean like myself.

And the vast majority turned to one form of crime or another to finance their drug habit. This is not just true for opiates, but also for meth addicts (which is why it's a lie when American leftists claim that Blacks get harsher drug sentences with Crack, since Whites get punished approximately just as hard, except with the laws regarding Meth... just different strokes...) and certain other drugs.

You can offer as much help and substitution as you want, if people aren't themselves REALLY ready to quit it won't help. In fact many are on much higher doses than they actually need, so they can sell the extra capsules (ie Substitol, which is an opiate substitue prevalent here, that contains wax balls in a capsule that you can cook up, let it cool down so the wax settles on top, remove that, then filter it into a syringe the same you would with heroin) for extra money, creating even more addicts who're not in any program and who get hooked faster due to higher quality and then commit crime to be able to buy more.

I agree that the war on drugs is unlikely to be ever won, but is giving up and liberalizing and decriminalizing hard drugs really an option? I don't care about the marijuana, obviously.

Decent people with decent morals can and will turn into real rats (violent and treacherous), who simply don't give a <deleted>. Not to mention the impact on families, the burned bridges, the deaths, et cetera.

Yes, decriminalizing, liberalizing and maybe even legalizing brings in additional revenue for the state, and sometimes (but not always) drives organized drug traffickers out of business. But there's a cost attached here as well, and I'm not sure it ultimately adds up to less.