Thai Health Ministry under scrutiny for drug user-dealer regulation

[webfact]

 

The Public Health Ministry faces a 30-day deadline to substantiate its regulation that categorises individuals holding five methamphetamine pills or 10mg of crystal meth or less as mere drug users, not dealers. This demand comes from the Office of the Ombudsman, which is considering cancelling the ministry regulation.

 

The secretary-general of the Office of the Ombudsman, Police Lieutenant Colonel Keirov Krittateeranon, expressed a keen interest in understanding how the regulation is going to tackle social disobedience, as previously claimed.

 

Police Major General Vichai Sangprapai, the former deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, initiated this review. He filed a petition against the regulation with the Office of the Ombudsman, arguing that it contravenes Thailand’s constitution and could cause more harm than good.

According to Pol. Maj. Gen. Vichai, this regulation could potentially enable addicts to become dealers, leading to increased social harm, including crime and disorder. He fears that corrupt police may exploit the regulation, accepting bribes to ignore the quantity of drugs in possession, leading to dealers being classified as users in need of rehabilitation rather than imprisonment.

Furthermore, he argues that the regulation may not assist in drug suppression and does not reduce the prisoner population, as it could increase crime rates by allowing drug users to go free. Emphasising the need for more effective anti-drug regulations, he noted that meth pills induce hallucinations and aggression, regardless of the quantity consumed.

 

He pointed out that, on average, each police station in the country deals with five meth-related violence cases daily. He questioned the effectiveness of treating drug users as patients, considering the ongoing violence. He also critiqued the absence of government data on drug relapse post-rehabilitation, reported Bangkok Post.

 

“The health ministry regulation is dangerous, and I will fight it with all my might.”

 

Pol. Lt. Col. Keirov indicated that if the Ombudsman agrees with Pol. Maj. Gen. Vichai’s petition, which calls for the regulation’s cancellation on the grounds of its opposition to the constitution or other laws, the case will be referred to the Administrative Court for a decision. He confirmed that the Office of the Ombudsman will notify the Ministry of Public Health about this matter within the 30-day timeframe.

 

by Mitch Connor

Picture courtesy of Thairath

 

Source: The Thaiger 2024-03-11

 

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[thesetat]

Makes sense. Dealers would normally carry more than 5 pills. Users though would only carry what they will use and should not be dealt the same punishment as a dealer. 

[khunjeff]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The secretary-general of the Office of the Ombudsman, Police Lieutenant Colonel Keirov Krittateeranon

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Police Major General Vichai Sangprapai, the former deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, initiated this review

 

Is the "ombudsman" looking after the interests of the police, or the public? Reasonable people can disagree about what the cutoff in the number of pills should be, but Vichai's argument seems to be "drugs are bad, therefore we should keep exactly the same enforcement regime that we've always had" (and which has done such a great job in reducing crime and abuse 🙄 ).

 

And his "fear[] that corrupt police may exploit the regulation, accepting bribes to ignore the quantity of drugs in possession" kind of ignores the fact that if you assume police will accept bribes, then no enforcement mechanism will work...

[dinsdale]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

According to Pol. Maj. Gen. Vichai, this regulation could potentially enable addicts to become dealers, leading to increased social harm, including crime and disorder. He fears that corrupt police may exploit the regulation, accepting bribes to ignore the quantity of drugs in possession, leading to dealers being classified as users in need of rehabilitation rather than imprisonment.

Furthermore, he argues that the regulation may not assist in drug suppression and does not reduce the prisoner population, as it could increase crime rates by allowing drug users to go free. Emphasising the need for more effective anti-drug regulations, he noted that meth pills induce hallucinations and aggression, regardless of the quantity consumed.

 

He pointed out that, on average, each police station in the country deals with five meth-related violence cases daily. He questioned the effectiveness of treating drug users as patients, considering the ongoing violence. He also critiqued the absence of government data on drug relapse post-rehabilitation, reported Bangkok Post.

 

“The health ministry regulation is dangerous, and I will fight it with all my might.”

Corrupt police may exploit the situation. An admission that there are corrupt police. Nice one. Then says that dealers maybe only 6-10 pills and IMO not a dealing amount or possibly very, very small time dealer won't go to jail. Then says this policy will not reduce prisoner population. Then the need for more effective anti-drug regulations. Well the 'war on drugs' doesnt work. Thaksin's extrajudicial killings didn't work. Current policies don't work. What does he suggest. Globally the drug problem is not good and punitive measures simply do not work. Meth pills induce hallucinations and aggression regardless of quantity taken is just complete rubbish. One speed pill will not do this. Take two and still won't. It's methaphedamine. The serious problems come when people keep taking them and stay awake for days. Anxiety, extreme paranoia and hallucations become real. All of this and these fools want to recriminalise dope. 

[bamnutsak]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

He pointed out that, on average, each police station in the country deals with five meth-related violence cases daily.

 

Yikes!

 

How many police stations are there? (Let's not ask Suthep.)

 

But Cannabis is the problem.

 

 

The prisons are full, way beyond capacity. And 80% are in for meth.

 

A diversion program (AKA "Five Pills") is about the only option. However it will not be funded, staffed, or administered properly, so maybe just best to keep any meth possession a crime, with punishments varying by volume.

 

 

[dinsdale]

1 hour ago, thesetat said:

Makes sense. Dealers would normally carry more than 5 pills. Users though would only carry what they will use and should not be dealt the same punishment as a dealer. 

How do you know this? Users can drop several pills in a day. This I know for certain.

Edited March 11 by dinsdale

[spidermike007]

Nobody should ever be punished for recreational use of drugs. It is not a deterrent. Frankly, I think it has the opposite effect. Make all drugs legal, keep the prison population down, and allow people to harm themselves to their hearts content. Keep govt. out of people's lives. 

[john donson]

hard forced labor could straighten them out... 

[dinsdale]

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Nobody should ever be punished for recreational use of drugs. It is not a deterrent. Frankly, I think it has the opposite effect. Make all drugs legal, keep the prison population down, and allow people to harm themselves to their hearts content. Keep govt. out of people's lives. 

Problem with legalizing all drugs, of which I support, is that systems such as rehab, social work and employment programs need to be put in place. Portugal has had success in this. Crime down and prison populations down. The bigger problem IMHO is not putting systems such as these in place but insted it is the very high level drug king pins and high level corruption that stops this from happening. There is absolutely no willingness to chop off the head of the snake. Way too much money involved.

[spidermike007]

44 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Problem with legalizing all drugs, of which I support, is that systems such as rehab, social work and employment programs need to be put in place. Portugal has had success in this. Crime down and prison populations down. The bigger problem IMHO is not putting systems such as these in place but insted it is the very high level drug king pins and high level corruption that stops this from happening. There is absolutely no willingness to chop off the head of the snake. Way too much money involved.

I suspect you are absolutely correct and I suspect that many of those high level culprits are high-ranking police and army officers.