British Man Arrested with Diazepam in Karon

[brianthainess]

1 minute ago, Tropicalevo said:

But he originally had a strip of 10.  (According to the photo in the FULL story.) He had already taken (or sold) the others.

But he was only 'CARRYING' ONE. 

[BE88]

I demand the arrest of the policemen for lack of brains.

[Yagoda]

3 hours ago, gargamon said:

From the linked article:

They searched him and found one Diazepam pill on him. 

 

Looks like it's time to get out of Thailand. This is out of control. 

MIllions of people come to Thailand and some poor schnook gets locked up (and we dont even have the real story) so everybody should flee screaming in terror?

 

Such drama. Get a grip kid.

[Kalorymetr]

Wow I always carry one diazepam just in case too. I ofcourse got full pack from a hospital. What to do..?

[Tropicalevo]

20 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

But he was only 'CARRYING' ONE. 

YAWN

[impulse]

4 minutes ago, Kalorymetr said:

Wow I always carry one diazepam just in case too. I ofcourse got full pack from a hospital. What to do..?

 

Not diazepam, but I keep a photo copy of my hospital prescriptions on my cell phone.  I've never had to pull them up so I don't know if that's adequate.

 

Mostly, I find it disturbing if they're doing random checks on taxi passengers.  Witnessed it several times in the Asoke area where I lived and worked, but that was before Covid and the cops in that area were notorious.  I'm not sure that's a good way to attract tourists, even the ones that don't do drugs.

 

[BE88]

Mr. Thomas look suspicious because he looked like an Englishman ?

 

I thought I had heard them all in the LOS but every day something new is even more stupid and never-ending .

Edited March 13 by BE88

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

I didn't know that Diazepam is illegal in Thailand, a country where you can buy almost any drug over the counter...

You shouldn't make such misleading statements. There may have been some truth in it 20 odd years ago, I used to buy Diazepam from the pharmacy counter in Modern on a regular basis.

About 15 years ago it all came to an end and drugs like painkillers and sleeping tablets became quite restricted in reputable pharmacies. In 2012 I had severe back problems and as an outpatient the strongest painkiller that could be prescribed was Ibuprofen. When I asked the consultant for sleeping tablets I got 10, no more.

Thailand can be stricter than the UK, I saw Nurofen in a pharmacy one day and asked for Nurofen Plus, the assistant just held his hands out in a "handcuff" motion.

Circumventing the law can hardly be seen as unique to Thailand.

[sandyf]

52 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

The FULL story says he was carrying one, why is is that hard to tell?

That is a side issue.

They were investigating suspicous behaviour and the presence of any restricted drug would justify further investigation.

[brianthainess]

12 minutes ago, sandyf said:

That is a side issue.

They were investigating suspicous behaviour and the presence of any restricted drug would justify further investigation.

And where did I say it wasn't but I was commenting on a post that said it's hard to tell if he was CARRYING ONE. It's not hard to understand, the Cops found ONE.

[ikke1959]

Friends are coming to Thailand on a holiday and I informed them already to stay away from Phuket and Pattaya.  It are not the places to be in Thailand

[sandyf]

11 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

And where did I say it wasn't but I was commenting on a post that said it's hard to tell if he was CARRYING ONE. It's not hard to understand, the Cops found ONE.

Quite irrelevant, at the end of the day nothing more than media interpretation and hype.

Personally I don't see why anyone would need to carry diazepan, but then like the police I am not a doctor.

[Yagoda]

8 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

Friends are coming to Thailand on a holiday and I informed them already to stay away from Phuket and Pattaya.  It are not the places to be in Thailand

Well thats advice I have been giving for years.

[ChipButty]

14 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

Friends are coming to Thailand on a holiday and I informed them already to stay away from Phuket and Pattaya.  It are not the places to be in Thailand

So, where did you recommend?

[Scouse123]

1 hour ago, ChipButty said:

So, where did you recommend?

 

VIETNAM!

[Scouse123]

I read the full story and it's just totally bizarre to me.

 

And the Police saying he looked ' suspicious ' is simply ridiculous. I just brought a good few packets of Ibuprofen from the UK, for the MIL.

 

I wonder if I would have had problems if stopped, and I always carry sleepers for long aeroplane journeys.

 

He may have looked nervous, not suspicious, nobody wants to be stopped by these gangsters.

 

Footnote on that story says 33 foreigners have been arrested in Phuket on various misdemeanours including 3 Chinese working on a building site, since this Swiss story hit the headlines.

[Ralf001]

6 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

I read the full story and it's just totally bizarre to me.

 

And the Police saying he looked ' suspicious ' is simply ridiculous. I just brought a good few packets of Ibuprofen from the UK, for the MIL.

 

I wonder if I would have had problems if stopped, and I always carry sleepers for long aeroplane journeys.

 

He may have looked nervous, not suspicious, nobody wants to be stopped by these gangsters.

 

Footnote on that story says 33 foreigners have been arrested in Phuket on various misdemeanours including 3 Chinese working on a building site, since this Swiss story hit the headlines.

 

7/11 sell Ibuprofen.... doubt the police would give you any grief.

[Wuvu2]

6 hours ago, gargamon said:

From the linked article:

They searched him and found one Diazepam pill on him. 

 

Looks like it's time to get out of Thailand. This is out of control.

 

 

I gotta think he did something either very suspicious or very confrontational to get pulled out of a taxi and searched at a roadside down to a single pill. I doubt this is just overzealous cops at a check point, or a trend in Thailand 😉

 

[ChipButty]

16 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

I read the full story and it's just totally bizarre to me.

 

And the Police saying he looked ' suspicious ' is simply ridiculous. I just brought a good few packets of Ibuprofen from the UK, for the MIL.

 

I wonder if I would have had problems if stopped, and I always carry sleepers for long aeroplane journeys.

 

He may have looked nervous, not suspicious, nobody wants to be stopped by these gangsters.

 

Footnote on that story says 33 foreigners have been arrested in Phuket on various misdemeanours including 3 Chinese working on a building site, since this Swiss story hit the headlines.

Dont forget the Burmese, been a few of them

[actonion]

Diazepam, AKA Valium, highly addictive  Medicine used for   Anxiety, Alcohol Withdrawl, Seizures, and a few others, being arrested he's going to suffer some more Anxiety now courtesy of  local plod... ..Low season coming soon not so much tea money about

[aussienam]

So, this appears to be a blitz in Phuket as a knee-jerk response to the Swiss idiot who kicked the Thai doctor.  Fair assumption?  Since the multiple crackdowns on farangs there lately.

 

Now punishment will be ten-fold against farang to serve as lesson to not harm Thais. I am not disputing that there are farangs doing the wrong thing.  And there are some bad actors living in LOS who shouldn't be. 

 

Diazepam is dispensed at so many clinics.  People with anxiety disorder, depression, chronic tinnitus and other inner ear disorders, alcohol withdrawal, chronic insomnia - can benefit from being on this medication.  Of course it can be abused, which is the issue.  

 

Many clinics dispense them at 15 to 20 baht each.  Hospitals charge consultation and then hospital prices which are exorbitant and almost criminal in how much they charge, albeit the apparent correct way. 

 

You go to a certified clinic to speak about suffering with a diagnosed disorder and you are provided with Diazepam and you are meant to know this is apparently not legal as you were not provided a script, rather a clinic resealable bag with a number of tablets, no receipt.  

Publishing an arrest for 1 x diazepam tablet, and prosecuting him for it. Wow!

 

The man apparently 'looked suspicious' and searched.  Looking suspicious?  How? Nervous? Shaking in fear?  Trying to conceal something?  Or just by the 'look' of his face?  Or just an excuse made up to target foreigners.  I wonder which one.  Phuket police are known for some questionable methods.  

Technically the medication is illegal yes, if not prescribed.  But then why not crackdown on the thousands of clinics and pharmacies dispensing them to clueless foreigners. 

[gomangosteen]

One Diazepam; doesn't rate against Chiang Mai Charly in the news today, British man Charly Garcia 'invested' 800,000 baht to on-sell drugs to tourists. 

All on a student visa! He'll have plenty of time to become fluent in Thai in the years ahead.

 

Cocaine, ketamine, mushrooms, LSD, MDMA, and 160 tablets of diazepam (Valium) and alprazolam (Xanax).

Briton arrested for selling drugs to tourists

[aussienam]

5 hours ago, thesetat said:

I used to be able to buy this at a doctors office. Hospitals rarely want to give it to you anymore. Now they offer something similar with a warning on its addictiveness. However, I have never been told to keep the paperwork with me. The chances he bought this on the street is slim at best. It is not something so common for sale and consumption illegally. The witch hunt continues. I wonder how many taxis they stopped that had Thais in them? 

Maybe 'Stresam'?  I was prescribed that at a hospital in lieu of diazepam.  And an antidepressant.  Cost over 4000 baht for one month.  I almost fell backwards.  In Oz, my specialist prescribes diazepam.  The hospital specialist wouldn't.  Price gauging galore. 

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Friends are coming to Thailand on a holiday and I informed them already to stay away from Phuket and Pattaya.  It are not the places to be in Thailand

Why is it not the place for normal visitors?   Do you anticipate that your friends will be carrying things that they shouldn't be?

[ikke1959]

2 hours ago, ChipButty said:

So, where did you recommend?

they come a week to Thailand now and than they go to Vietnam for 2 weeks

[Mr Meeseeks]

4 hours ago, zzzzz said:

35+ years in Thailand and thousands of taxi rides all over,  have NEVER been stopped by police>
extremely bad luck for him
 

 

When I lived in Bangkok in my early 20's during the late 90's, we would be randomly stopped in taxis by Police all the time. Early 00's also.

 

Around 2016-17 there were Police checkpoints on Asok-Rama 3, so every time I went out for a drink along Sukhumvit and was heading home at the wee hours, my taxi would be pulled over, and I would be searched. This happened about half a dozen times before I moved to Chonburi.

 

You must have been extremely lucky.

[Mr Meeseeks]

4 hours ago, ChipButty said:

It used to happen a lot in Bangkok around Tong Lor area, dragging farangs out of taxi's late at night

 

See my post above. 

[Hummin]

4 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

A 19 mg tablet?😂 

You know the zero next to nine? Ny fat finger made a typo if you did not understand 🥸

[Mr Meeseeks]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

That is a side issue.

They were investigating suspicous behaviour and the presence of any restricted drug would justify further investigation.

 

In reality, they saw a foreigner coming and thus a potential victim to extort or bully into handing over money.

 

Y'know, the way it usually works here.

[Liverpool Lou]

4 hours ago, 1happykamper said:

Random roadside drug test. Yikes. Diszapam isn't a drug you would use to get high or trip out... It simply calms you. But Ganga is fine. TIT 

 

Simply over the top. Again. 

An over-the-top misinterpretation of what was actually reported. Again.

It was a routine checkpoint and it was not reported that he was drug-tested at the roadside, he was found in possession of the pill.