Our village head man announced on Saturday evening, and again this morning, that everybody over 14 must take a urine drugs test between 09:00 and 16:00 today. Those that don't will get a visit from the police and be tested at home.

 

Been here 20 years - first time for me.

 

Is this a common occurrence?

Not seen or heard of in 13 years.

Mass testing is done at entertainment values, checkpoints.

But a whole village...

They aren't going to catch the meth-heads as the meth is excreted within a day. 
Yaba is endemic in rural villages, but blanket urine tests aren't going to stop it.  It's endemic because it is allowed as long as brown envelops are given to the correct people.
For anyone else with drugs in their system with a longer half-life, well, the village head just warned them to leave the village.  "The cops will visit you when you get home."  Well, the drugs will be out of the person's system by then.  This is more of an exercise in authoritarianism. Expect more of this nonsense as Thaksin insinuates himself into the Thai political scene.

I've read of a similar story on this forum in the past - a few years ago. 

 

Don't bother with it and don't worry about it - I doubt anyone will be that interested in you anyway, this seems more like a 'generalised sweep' to catch the local lads who've been up to mischief. 

 

Its a heavy handed and rather lazy way for the Police to enforce laws, but also can have a positive impact of taking a few nutcases off the streets or bringing them into line. 

 

The issue with such behavior is that its difficult to 'stand up for your rights' - the BiB need cause to test you, but also, refusing a test will make you look like you have something to worry about. The Police and community won't understand anyone 'standing up on principle'....   

 

If having to 'volunteer' yourself at a centre for testing, I wouldn't bother.  

If the BiB turn up at your house and request a test, then just do the test and forget about it. Refusing could make things in the community more awkward for you as this somewhat backward idea of testing a whole village already implies a backward mentality. 

 

 

 

 

Same thing happened in our village about 2 weeks ago.

 

Although my wife is our phu yai ban's aunty, and I'm privy to some things that go on around here I didn't get to hear what the results were, if any, although I do know there are a couple of users living here.

 

P. S. I was NOT required to provide a sample.

 

 

We went, as we have a residence and they specifically mentioned that tenants must also be tested (they obviously have no idea who is living in such places, so a focus surely).

Not very well thought out as it ended up being 9-12 on a Monday (they could have done it yesterday if they were really interested in a total sampling).

I suspect that they already know who they are after and just wanted to create a reason to grab them this evening, or whenever. Some of our residents went but the dodgy ones didn't read the wife's informing message and 'went out', maybe to not return in a while....

 

We recently evicted a 21-year old guy and his 14-year old girlfriend that had a weed party in their room.

 

 

Sounds like the real PM is already swinging into action......death squads next???

23 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Same thing happened in our village about 2 weeks ago.

 

Although my wife is our phu yai ban's aunty, and I'm privy to some things that go on around here I didn't get to hear what the results were, if any, although I do know there are a couple of users living here.

 

P. S. I was NOT required to provide a sample.

 

 

My wife built a house in her village, she said all the workers use it, I said: don’t the police do anything? She said -yes, they supply it! 

I’m surprised it’s legal to do that.

51 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

I’m surprised it’s legal to do that.

 

What does legality have to do with it?   It is a pain but as the OP said they probably had a few people in mind that were causing issues.  This is one way to keep the property values up and get rid of the riff raff.

1 hour ago, zepplin said:

My wife built a house in her village, she said all the workers use it, I said: don’t the police do anything? She said -yes, they supply it! 

 

Same in our village.....to keep their hands clean, the police supply all the drugs to the guy down the road from us.

 

He then dishes it out to his minions to distribute round the local villages.

 

On the face of it the main guy runs a restaurant........but strangely.... ...with no food and no customers?

4 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

On the face of it the main guy runs a restaurant........but strangely.... ...with no food and no customers?

6ft tall terracotta fish outside? (serious question).

2 minutes ago, mokwit said:

6ft tall terracotta fish outside? (serious question).

 

No...but the most dark, dirty and unappealing frontage you can imagine......just in case some outsider thought it might be a restaurant...555.

 

Brand new Ford Ranger with all the bells and whistles parked outside though.

On 12/23/2024 at 10:57 AM, richard_smith237 said:

I've read of a similar story on this forum in the past - a few years ago. 

 

Don't bother with it and don't worry about it - I doubt anyone will be that interested in you anyway, this seems more like a 'generalised sweep' to catch the local lads who've been up to mischief. 

 

Its a heavy handed and rather lazy way for the Police to enforce laws, but also can have a positive impact of taking a few nutcases off the streets or bringing them into line. 

 

The issue with such behavior is that its difficult to 'stand up for your rights' - the BiB need cause to test you, but also, refusing a test will make you look like you have something to worry about. The Police and community won't understand anyone 'standing up on principle'....   

 

If having to 'volunteer' yourself at a centre for testing, I wouldn't bother.  

If the BiB turn up at your house and request a test, then just do the test and forget about it. Refusing could make things in the community more awkward for you as this somewhat backward idea of testing a whole village already implies a backward mentality. 

 

 

 

 

Hello richard, merry xmas.

 

I thought you lived in BKK, therefore how can you make all these statements about rural thailand having never lived there?

On 12/23/2024 at 11:36 AM, Moonlover said:

Same thing happened in our village about 2 weeks ago.

 

Although my wife is our phu yai ban's aunty, and I'm privy to some things that go on around here I didn't get to hear what the results were, if any, although I do know there are a couple of users living here.

 

P. S. I was NOT required to provide a sample.

 

 

Yes, had this about a month ago. The real purpose is to give the pou yai a clearance that the whole village is not on yaba. Those that are did not turn up for the test so the pou myai gets 100% clearance.

On 12/23/2024 at 3:32 PM, NotEinstein said:

 

We recently evicted a 21-year old guy and his 14-year old girlfriend that had a weed party in their room.

A "Weed Party"  lol

20 hours ago, zepplin said:

My wife built a house in her village, she said all the workers use it, I said: don’t the police do anything? She said -yes, they supply it! 

 

19 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

I’m surprised it’s legal to do that.

Yeah really I’m surprised too

Our village did it back in the summer, except for old people over 40 something. Must have been about 5 people tested. Everyone is old here. 

21 hours ago, zepplin said:

My wife built a house in her village, she said all the workers use it, I said: don’t the police do anything? She said -yes, they supply it! 

Yep - My wife can point out the meth dealers in the village (and the tambon), tell you where they live, who is dealing, and who is supplying them (see zepplin's comment).  🙄  It's a nice cosy little world. 

She did get a twenty-something year old monk busted for meth.  The young monk was the sole caretaker of the village temple as the official abbot was often in Bangkok and was due to be replaced with a new abbot.  During that time the kid spent most of his days with the yaba crowd hanging out at the temple and installing stereo systems into cars.  My wife bypassed the local amphur cops and went to a narcotics cop she knew in Chiang Mai.  Chiang Mai narcs contacted the amphur cops and showed up to do a surprise pee-test on the monk.  Caught him with meth in his possession as well.  Lucky for him he escaped going to jail.  A local shop owner took him in as an employee and the got off with pretty much a hand-slap and parole.  Which is fine imho.  Yaba users need treatment, not prison.  Wife is not interested in the rest of the yaba dealer network.  She only cared about a yaba-taking monk being in charge of the village temple. She is a solid Buddhist if a monk is disrespecting Buddhism - look out.  We now have a older monk who is doing a great job renovating the temple grounds, and I believe he will eventually become the abbot - he's a stand-up guy. 

On 12/23/2024 at 3:32 PM, NotEinstein said:

We recently evicted a 21-year old guy and his 14-year old girlfriend that had a weed party in their room.

what's a weed party?

 

few people having a smoke ( that's legal ) and you evicted them......lovely!

16 minutes ago, PJ71 said:

what's a weed party?

 

few people having a smoke ( that's legal ) and you evicted them......lovely!

Oh how we jump to conclusions!

 

We have a no smoking in the room policy, whatever it is. We also do not allow parties or other people staying overnight. They broke  those 2 rules, so my wife spoke to their boss, who was paying for the room, who said she can deal with them. She spoke with them reminding them of the no overnight guests, to which the guy said that he works for his boss. In response the boss said "chuck them out now". When told, they asked if they could stay until the 21st, which my wife agreed to if they followed the rules - that night they did the same again.

 

It wasn't until they had left that we discovered the disgusting state of the room, stinking of whatever they had been smoking, burns in bed sheet and mattress topper, the bathroom flooded because they had blocked shower drain with fag ends being deposited.

On 12/23/2024 at 10:49 AM, KhunBENQ said:

Not seen or heard of in 13 years.

Mass testing is done at entertainment values, checkpoints.

But a whole village...

The police would not be able to piss test me (you can refuse and go to the police station) like alone a stupid village headman and his cohorts.

They won’t piss test a Farang.

16 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

They won’t piss test a Farang.

They didn't turn me away.......

Tales from a world I have never seen, nor experienced. And one I do not wish too. This is just so  low end and hillbilly.

Refuse. They have no right. This sounds like just another brainless idiot who thinks he has lots of power showing off. Either that or Thaksin sent him a memo. Hmmm! Maybe both. I'm assuming this is pseudo official so there will be not formal notice of this. Please post it if there is.

 

9 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Refuse. They have no right. This sounds like just another brainless idiot who thinks he has lots of power showing off. Either that or Thaksin sent him a memo. Hmmm! Maybe both. I'm assuming this is pseudo official so there will be not formal notice of this. Please post it if there is.

 

No, all official - the ladies from or-sor-mor processed and tested. A few cops in attendance.

 

If performed by local police, who in our district controls the drug traffic, would be ironic 

 

Well, at least they would know who had their own supplies a least

On 12/25/2024 at 10:33 AM, NotEinstein said:

Oh how we jump to conclusions!

 

We have a no smoking in the room policy, whatever it is. We also do not allow parties or other people staying overnight. They broke  those 2 rules, so my wife spoke to their boss, who was paying for the room, who said she can deal with them. She spoke with them reminding them of the no overnight guests, to which the guy said that he works for his boss. In response the boss said "chuck them out now". When told, they asked if they could stay until the 21st, which my wife agreed to if they followed the rules - that night they did the same again.

 

It wasn't until they had left that we discovered the disgusting state of the room, stinking of whatever they had been smoking, burns in bed sheet and mattress topper, the bathroom flooded because they had blocked shower drain with fag ends being deposited.

Fair bit 'we' decided to leave out then.....

9 minutes ago, PJ71 said:

Fair bit 'we' decided to leave out then.....

Seeing as the subject was the drugs testing and the tenants activities were  just an add-in for local context, It wasn't needed.

 

You cherry-picked that, making it an issue. Or do you expect 'war and peace' from every poster concerning every single aspect in fine-grained detail?