Out Clubbing In Bangkok? Be Ready For Drug Test

[DJ Pat]

Simple message: Don't be stupid enough to do drugs.

If u do, you deserve all u get.

[Doctor John]

Simple message: Don't be stupid enough to do drugs.

If u do, you deserve all u get.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Amen.

[stumonster]

baa

what is it with the invasion? those earthquakes loosen a few rocks?

[snooky]

B ) The tests will pick up many prescription or non fun drugs as a positive result. I know a guy who takes Phentermine for weight loss who had to bribe his way out of a positive test.

C ) If your test is positive bribing you way out is certainly an option, thus making these tests even more redundant than they already are.

I don't take drugs nor have I ever even tho' I was raised in East Harlem in NYC. (Guess I was lucky)

On the occasion I do like to wander about, I wonder about all the heart related meds I take and if any one knows a legitimate place where I could find out if any of these prescriptions would cause me to test positive.

Getting involved with offering a bribe frightens me as I would be the unlucky person to offer something to a 'straight arrow' policeman and spend 20 years at the 'Hilton' wondering why I did it.

Any suggestions - other than staying in all the time??

[Crushdepth]

“The rules are there and so easy to follow,” Pracha, 57, said after taking office as deputy interior minister in late 2002. “Don’t do anything illegal and I’ll leave you alone.”

Except for making you piss in a jar on your night out. Every tourist welcome in Thailand ! Show me your passport and piss in the jar please, you look like a drug addict.

Do you think every night club is raided ? Or just those in which the police don't have business interests - or who aren't handing enough money under the table. And of course the boys in brown definitely have no interest in the drug trade themselves.

[Coffee Dude]

Try doing the same thing in Singapore.

Singapore is about as boring as it comes. I should hate to see Thailand go the same way

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Until some junkie mugs you, then you will ask why the Police don't do anything about drug users !!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There are only 2 arguments that I know of as to why drugs are illegal in the first place.

1 They are unhealthy. Probably true but probably not as unhealthy as going to the Bangkok Hilton and certainly not as unhealthy as many other things that aren't illegal. On a personal note I don't want my heatlh issues to be dictated to me.

2 People who use drugs may be more likely to commit crimes. Also maybe true, but poor people have a motive and inclination to commit crimes as well so they can feed their families. Would it be acceptable to arrest people who are poor because they may commit a crime someday?

Coffee!!!

[usatrader]

I see in my crystal ball a massive troll retreat to the enderlands of trollville.

Amsterdam o Amsterdam, where art thou! All the trolls did shrek, not a drug, not a peak, o Amsterdam my dear dear deadbeat retreat.

That is all!

[chuckygobyebye]

The raid in Q Bar isn't news, it was more than a month ago. It is an interesting case becasue the operators of Qbar have always cooperated with police and the governement, even going as far as being a test-bed for new nightlife policy and laws.

I've been there many times and it is not a place where people go to take drugs, it's just not the right kind of atmosphere at all. The police carrying out the raid had been instructed to make arrests and when they found nobody testing positive, they started busting people for not carrying their passports. (As an aside, how many forum members carry their passports every minute of the day? Mine would be wrecked in a week!)

All this makes me suspect that the raid was carried out for political capital than law enforcement.

And by the way, if you want to see Farangs taking drugs, pop down to Patpong any night of the week, it's the one place that never gets piss-tested.

[Doctor John]

Try doing the same thing in Singapore.

Singapore is about as boring as it comes. I should hate to see Thailand go the same way

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Until some junkie mugs you, then you will ask why the Police don't do anything about drug users !!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There are only 2 arguments that I know of as to why drugs are illegal in the first place.

1 They are unhealthy. Probably true but probably not as unhealthy as going to the Bangkok Hilton and certainly not as unhealthy as many other things that aren't illegal. On a personal note I don't want my heatlh issues to be dictated to me.

2 People who use drugs may be more likely to commit crimes. Also maybe true, but poor people have a motive and inclination to commit crimes as well so they can feed their families. Would it be acceptable to arrest people who are poor because they may commit a crime someday?

Coffee!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Being poor is not a criminal offence.

Taking illegal drugs is.

Go party in Benidorm if Thailand is too strict, why bitch about it ?

[Doctor John]

The raid in Q Bar isn't news, it was more than a month ago.  It is an interesting case becasue the operators of Qbar have always cooperated with police and the governement, even going as far as being a test-bed for new nightlife policy and laws.

I've been there many times and it is not a place where people go to take drugs, it's just not the right kind of atmosphere at all.  The police carrying out the raid had been instructed to make arrests and when they found nobody testing positive, they started busting people for not carrying their passports.  (As an aside, how many forum members carry their passports every minute of the day?  Mine would be wrecked in a week!)

All this makes me suspect that the raid was carried out for political capital than law enforcement.

And by the way, if you want to see Farangs taking drugs, pop down to Patpong any night of the week, it's the one place that never gets piss-tested.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Carrying your Passport is law, break it and pay. You are free to do so.

Japan also has the same law, Aliens must carry a Passport that has to be shown for inspection if required to do so.

Why is it so difficult to respect another countries laws ?

[sriracha john]

Would it be acceptable to arrest people who are poor because they may commit a crime someday?

Coffee!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SHHHHHH!!!.... don't give Dr. T any more ideas for his next "War On ........ "

[Coffee Dude]

Try doing the same thing in Singapore.

Singapore is about as boring as it comes. I should hate to see Thailand go the same way

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Until some junkie mugs you, then you will ask why the Police don't do anything about drug users !!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There are only 2 arguments that I know of as to why drugs are illegal in the first place.

1 They are unhealthy. Probably true but probably not as unhealthy as going to the Bangkok Hilton and certainly not as unhealthy as many other things that aren't illegal. On a personal note I don't want my heatlh issues to be dictated to me.

2 People who use drugs may be more likely to commit crimes. Also maybe true, but poor people have a motive and inclination to commit crimes as well so they can feed their families. Would it be acceptable to arrest people who are poor because they may commit a crime someday?

Coffee!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Being poor is not a criminal offence.

Taking illegal drugs is.

Go party in Benidorm if Thailand is too strict, why bitch about it ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not bitching DJ (I like your name by the way. There was once a fairly famous musician named Dr John the Night Tripper. He wore a hat very much like your avatar).

I was just making a point as to the possibilities of why drugs are illegal and the potential to commit an actual crime is high on the list. It was brought into analitical comparison in the Nixon era as a result of the Methadone clinics. This showed that Junkies, when offered free drugs, coincided with a decrease in crime. Then came an all out war on drugs. Simply following the same line of logic, this could be applied to poor people to lessen crime. Make being poor illegal and there would be less crime as well.

Coffee!!!

[sriracha john]

Why is it so difficult to respect another countries laws ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For the same reasons #2, #3, #4, and #5 from earlier go unaddressed. Also, it's to point out that Thai tourism wants it both ways: Increased arrivals and decreased respect for common sense laws. If they want to act like a Gestapo force, they have to ACCEPT extremely low tourist arrivals.

[PvtDick]

I've got to point out that decreased tourist arrivals are only a theory. In reality, the opposite might be true -- just a different kind of tourist arrivals.

The TAT's statistics show significant growth in tourist arrivals since the social order campaign began three years ago -- except during the SARS scare of 2003.

My bet is that they will continue to rise, but be made up of fewer and fewer sex tourists.

[cutter007]

As for most things in Thailand, the officially anounced reason for an action is usually not even in the same universe as the actual reasons.

Raids in places like the Qbar have nothing to do with cleaning up the drug problem or foreigners needing to carry their passports. I really don't know what they are about, I can only suspect. And most have already guessed the common suspicions.

Most if not all of them have the word money somewhere in the text.

I can tell you without hesistation though, as one of my neighbors is a Thai officer, that there are discos that are well known by average citizens and police alike, that 80 - 85% of the customers are on drugs. These are places in bangkok where 99% of the customers are Thai. And they never get raided.

The police know about these places, and they don't get raided.

So tell me why anyone should support 300 people be held against there will, for reasons other than what are stated by the officers.

[stumonster]

maybe not in good taste.

shut up or get stacked in a truck.

is there a piss test for corruption, cronyism or nepotism... or are they the ones taking the piss.

during this war on drugs, you have to have money to take drugs and frequent expensive nightspots....

[Elysium]

It is again surprising me that there are so many on this board so hypocritical that they only can say 'use no drugs and you have no problem'.

My responds should not be seen as a foreigner living in Thailand but as a member of the international, democratic society. It is not only in Thailand that I do not agree with government policies but also in other countries. As this is a Thailand related board we discuss in more detail the situation in Thailand, fair enough.

The issue at hand is that certain groups are targeted because of the wished exposure to the international community and to the grass root society of Thailand. Those groups are more likely to take the news as it is without doing their own research. Why are raids at Thai clubs never (or less active) publicized in Thai media and neither in English language media? There is no gain for the ones in power.

Getting rid of the drugs problem involves a lot more than drugs testing. One previous writer said that you should target the source; correct! Done in Thailand; NO! Why not...? This is the question to be asked, not an idiot statement which says, use no drugs....etc.

Why Q bar was the target, as before? Q bar is a Thai owned legitimate business which is not advocating drugs use in any way. But it is a high profile club with a large local and international following. This is very good when the cameras come in and deputy ministers are showing why they raided the place... If no success, lost face, as in Q. They had to resort to the passport issue after seeing all patrons with their test and their ID.... Why was nobody held at that time for not holding the passport? Because this was not the target of this raid. It was changed after they found nobody testing confirmed positive. To save the faces of the people in charge in front of TV and still cameras of the, biased and controlled, press.

After the raid and detaining several foreigners the police was required to apoligise to a few high profile foreigners who were detained for not carrying a passport. Why?

The discussion that drugs are illegal and you should not use any is one thing. Carrying your ID a second.. But the issue what should be discussed is the targeting at will of certain groups and the reasons why!

Land of the free..... should be for both Thai and their visitors.

[Doctor John]

Don't break the law in Thailand.

[toastwars]

Time and agin I hear the same tired old quotes, Prohibition NEVER WORKS how many times does that have to be proved to you right wing morons. We live in a democracy albeit a tissue thin USA style democracy, taking drugs and dancing does not make you a criminal. Misguided lawmakers do. How many people are attacked and maimed in drunken arguments where a bottle is liberally applied to the head? How many stoned people are willing or capable of doing the same? if you are serious about reducing drug abuse (it will NEVER be wiped out anywhere so why flog the dead horse) Then decriminilse at least then you wipe out the underground element and can target drug education and offer help to those who want it. At the same time every street dealer is put out of opperation because in a decriminilised drug enviroment, they are bought from government sources. Wise up and stop using Reaganist polcies to deal with a modern problem, they have not worked for the last twenty odd years so why think they will work now. Use a little common sense and look at the problem in a new way, perhaps then you could actually make a difference.

[Doctor John]

A few public crucifixions may send out a warning.

[sriracha john]

Don't break the law in Thailand. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

coincidentily that's the beginning of the new TAT tourism promotion:

Don't break the law in Thailand..... or end up in a military truck if you do.

Don't break the law in Thailand..... no matter how many civil liberties we ask you to give up in the process.

Don't break the law in Thailand..... our drug tests are certified 42% reliable.

Don't break the law in Thailand..... oh, to heck with it.... just don't come to Thailand at all, no matter your reasons, no matter how clean cut you are... because we don't want you at all. Just buy our chicken exports to your country for a "taste of Thailand."

[Foggy Bottom]

I've got to point out that decreased tourist arrivals are only a theory.  In reality, the opposite might be true -- just a different kind of tourist arrivals.

The TAT's statistics show significant growth in tourist arrivals since the social order campaign began three years ago -- except during the SARS scare of 2003.

My bet is that they will continue to rise, but be made up of fewer and fewer sex tourists.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I bet you believe everything you read in the newspapers too?

About 18 months ago, Khun Woman who heads up TAT was quoted regarding two press conferences she gave on the same day - the quotes were by the same reporter in a single article and it concerned an initiative to increase marketing to the Middle East countries because of their spend per head.

At the morning conference she stated they spent an average of B 8000+ per day each, and at the afternoon conference she stated they spent an average of 4000 each.

What on earth did she do at lunchtime to make them halve their spending?

Or could it be that TAT just makes up statistics as it goes along?

She was the same person, who in FEBRUARY 2002, stated that the "vital Japanese market" had shown a 40% drop in arrivals due to the World Cup - which didn't start until 5 months later.

If you want reasonably accurate statistics, visit the immigration police website but remember things like Dec 2002 - Khun Leader announced in November that arrivals would top the 10 million mark for the year - end of November's results arrived and showed a drop back year-on-year of around 15% and heading for barely over 9 million by year end - what happened in december? A huge surge completely off the normal curve that pushed arrivals over the 10 million.

Manipulation of the figures? Go look and figure it out for yourself.

Me, I trust my eyes and ears and the comments coming from tourist business operators, whether tour guides or bar owners or any other type of business operator - all except the 4 & 5 star venue operators are complaining of dropped numbers - ergo current policy is to go for the elite tourists, and as we know, there ARE fewer of them, therefore total numbers MUST be falling even if revenue is static or perhaps marginally growing.

Phuket's problems and events like Q bar, plus geographical ignorance tied to the worldwide media coverage of the muslim provinces' problems (it was all over the BBC last week) will depress arrival numbers this high season. But government stats will show a continuous growth - that's the real clue - no country or business can show a continuous uninterrupted growth in anything except total population (even that reverses sometimes) - so any country doing so is not telling the truth = simple really.

Up to them if they want to live in a fantasy land - farangs have the education to see through it, and that's why Dr.T is making life difficult for us - he doesn't want us educating the masses as to what he's up to.

[Doctor John]

Don't break the law in Thailand.  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

coincidentily that's the beginning of the new TAT tourism promotion:

Don't break the law in Thailand..... or end up in a military truck if you do.

Don't break the law in Thailand..... no matter how many civil liberties we ask you to give up in the process.

Don't break the law in Thailand..... our drug tests are certified 42% reliable.

Don't break the law in Thailand..... oh, to heck with it.... just don't come to Thailand at all, no matter your reasons, no matter how clean cut you are... because we don't want you at all. Just buy our chicken exports to your country for a "taste of Thailand."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Will you be having a garage sale when you move back to wherever you came from. and will you deliver for free ?

[toastwars]

Not even funny, no wonder you love the thaksin regime. Pleased about human right abuses are you?, teach em a lesson will it? I will look out for you DJ next time I go clubbing, I guess you will be the one with the lynch mob shouting "burn them, Burn them" we don't live in the middle ages anymore

[Doctor John]

Up to them if they want to live in a fantasy land - farangs have the education to see through it, and that's why Dr.T is making life difficult for us - he doesn't want us educating the masses as to what he's up to.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea, just imagine Thai cities being as safe as Manchester and Liverpool and Birmingham.

These barbarians need educating, just like us Brits.

[Doctor John]

guess you will be the one with the lynch mob shouting "burn them, Burn them"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, that will be me.

[sriracha john]

I've got to point out that decreased tourist arrivals are only a theory.  In reality, the opposite might be true -- just a different kind of tourist arrivals.

The TAT's statistics show significant growth in tourist arrivals since the social order campaign began three years ago -- except during the SARS scare of 2003.

My bet is that they will continue to rise, but be made up of fewer and fewer sex tourists.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I bet you believe everything you read in the newspapers too?

About 18 months ago, Khun Woman who heads up TAT was quoted regarding two press conferences she gave on the same day - the quotes were by the same reporter in a single article and it concerned an initiative to increase marketing to the Middle East countries because of their spend per head.

At the morning conference she stated they spent an average of B 8000+ per day each, and at the afternoon conference she stated they spent an average of 4000 each.

What on earth did she do at lunchtime to make them halve their spending?

Or could it be that TAT just makes up statistics as it goes along?

She was the same person, who in FEBRUARY 2002, stated that the "vital Japanese market" had shown a 40% drop in arrivals due to the World Cup - which didn't start until 5 months later.

If you want reasonably accurate statistics, visit the immigration police website but remember things like Dec 2002 - Khun Leader announced in November that arrivals would top the 10 million mark for the year - end of November's results arrived and showed a drop back year-on-year of around 15% and heading for barely over 9 million by year end - what happened in december? A huge surge completely off the normal curve that pushed arrivals over the 10 million.

Manipulation of the figures? Go look and figure it out for yourself.

Me, I trust my eyes and ears and the comments coming from tourist business operators, whether tour guides or bar owners or any other type of business operator - all except the 4 & 5 star venue operators are complaining of dropped numbers - ergo current policy is to go for the elite tourists, and as we know, there ARE fewer of them, therefore total numbers MUST be falling even if revenue is static or perhaps marginally growing.

Phuket's problems and events like Q bar, plus geographical ignorance tied to the worldwide media coverage of the muslim provinces' problems (it was all over the BBC last week) will depress arrival numbers this high season. But government stats will show a continuous growth - that's the real clue - no country or business can show a continuous uninterrupted growth in anything except total population (even that reverses sometimes) - so any country doing so is not telling the truth = simple really.

Up to them if they want to live in a fantasy land - farangs have the education to see through it, and that's why Dr.T is making life difficult for us - he doesn't want us educating the masses as to what he's up to.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I see you're up to your normal excellent level of posts, Gaz... many excellent points..

[Foggy Bottom]

Up to them if they want to live in a fantasy land - farangs have the education to see through it, and that's why Dr.T is making life difficult for us - he doesn't want us educating the masses as to what he's up to.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea, just imagine Thai cities being as safe as Manchester and Liverpool and Birmingham.

These barbarians need educating, just like us Brits.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The ordinary Thai people I have no problem with other than their unwillingness to learn about their own failings (admittedly positioned from my foreign point of view) but I hate the way the "top" people continually shaft them by relying on their lack of perception and education, then use those same conditions as their "justification" to dump "khrap" on us when we try to raise the levels of foresight and understanding.

It's almost as if the "top" people believe only they and farangs should be able to recognise what's going on, and as the farangs are not "top" Thais, they should be thrown out or persecuted when they state what they see.

The majority of ordinary people are surprised when it's explained to them, and only those who have lived (rather than holidayed) abroad, have any real understanding of what we tell them.

Wonder if that's why PM T only held the Education Minister's position (as a secondary job to being PM) for 6 weeks back in 2001?

[toastwars]

Doctor John, I guess by your reasoning that the murder of over 2000 "Drug Dealers" will haved helped solve the drug supply problem in Thailand? Did it? If so why is there a need for random drug tests in clubs, if by your suggestion a few public crucifictions might help, why did't the 2000 state sanctioned murders help? your ideology is so flawed it is frightening. Bet you read the Sun!!!

[kat]

There is a standard of civil liberties and rule of law in most developed societies for good reasons.

What happens if I smoke a splif in another country such as Amsterdam in a legal coffee shop, and then hop on a flight to Thailand and get fleeced in a drug-pissing shake down?

No laws were broken in Thailand, I was not seen with drugs or caught in the act, was not breaking other laws (provocation), and yet I would then be subject to Thai laws and rules of bribery for an act that was legal elsewhere.

The problem with nebulous sieges and arrests is that they produce nebulous results

that have nothing to do with the rule of law. And it will not reduce drug use; avoidance of the root issues never do.