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

[Bday Prang]

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

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

The ones going to the  UK aren't exactly kicking and screaming

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

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. 

In one month... wow.

[sansaihashbars]

It has been less than a month and the new policy of cannabis realization & acceptance is and will continue to benefit Thailand. What a pragmatic move! 

[freedomnow]

11 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

Just Say No.

Just Say BLOW ?

[bobbin]

11 hours ago, FarangULong said:

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.

This is a heart-felt post written by someone who speaks from experience.

 

A ridiculous amount of money has been spent (1 trillion $ +?), with what to show?

Hundreds of thousands of people have had their live upended by incarceration, their families suffering also.. These funds, at least a portion, can and should be redirected to public awareness programs untainted by a law and order perspective. Re-oriented to health awareness and treatment programs,

 

The Brutal Truth is that not everybody can be "saved". They will be a small percentage of the people harmed by the current approach.

[1sickpuppy]

19 hours 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

so true, good to see they finally got there heads outta the sand, alcohol is an idiots drug, a good way to sedate the masses

[jacko45k]

11 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

The ones going to the  UK aren't exactly kicking and screaming

Can't get enough of them, all  the asparagus, spring onions and strawberries are going bad!

[Bday Prang]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

Can't get enough of them, all  the asparagus, spring onions and strawberries are going bad!

Most of the ones coming to the UK have no intention  of picking vegetables or fruit , besides we have enough of our own wasters to do that, unfortunately they seem to be better off on benefits so they have no intention of working either

[johnnybangkok]

15 hours ago, FarangULong said:

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.

Thank you for sharing. It's always good to get the perspective of someone who has been through the tunnel and thankfully, come out the other end.

 

I agree that such liberalisation and easy access can tempt those that perhaps weren't tempted before but I think the idea that something needs to be done trumps this issue as we have all seen the effects and failure of the 'War on Drugs'. So perhaps we need to look at countries that have decriminalised drug usage (and started treating addicts as a health issue rather than a legal one) such as Portugal. https://transformdrugs.org/blog/drug-decriminalisation-in-portugal-setting-the-record-straight.

'Portugal has set a positive example for what can be done when drug policies prioritise health rather than criminalisation. At the turn of the century, Portugal was facing a crisis, including high levels of HIV infection among people who use drugs. Many impacts of reform were felt immediately: new HIV infections, drug deaths and the prison population all fell sharply within the first decade. The second decade saw slower improvement in key measures, as well as an upturn in drug deaths. However, many of these factors need to be put into context. Drug policy is still only one variable interacting with a complex mix of social, economic, cultural and political factors, and cuts to wider health provision in that period will have played a part in this. Nevertheless, Portugal is in a much better position than it was in 2001 and recorded drug use and drug deaths as a proportion of the general population are both well below the European average.

There are still drug laws in place in Portugal (trafficking and cultivation of illicit substances, as well as possession of quantities exceeding a ten days’ supply, remain criminal offenses for example) but by decriminalising personal possession, Portugal has been able to appoint district-level panels made up of legal, health and social work professionals, known as ‘Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction’. Where an individual is referred to a Commission for the first time and their drug use is assessed as non-problematic (low risk), the law requires their case to be ‘suspended’, meaning no further action is taken. Fines can be issued for subsequent referrals. Where some problematic trends are identified (moderate risk), brief interventions are proposed — including counselling — but these are non-mandatory. In ‘high risk’ cases, where more serious problematic behaviours and dependence are identified, individuals may receive non-mandatory referrals to specialised treatment services.

 

It's not all roses and sunshine for Portugal but this sounds like a sensible approach to a problem that hasn't been sorted by the  'lock 'em up and throw away the key' policies of less enlightened countries.  

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by johnnybangkok

[bangon04]

On 7/4/2022 at 8:41 AM, Old Croc said:

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. 

Darwinism????

[JackGats]

I wonder what chemicals are to be found in "yaba". Is it an umbrella term for short-acting substituted amphetamines like MDMA or MADME? Or is it just crappy meth at best?