B100 Million In Assets Seized In Phuket Drug Bust

[thaibeachlovers]

I agree that addicts cause a huge amount of crime to pay for their drugs, which is why I have always believed that ALL drugs should be LEGAL! Yes, anyone can take whatever they like. I'm always told that I live in a free country, so why does any government lackey have the right to prevent me putting whatever I like into my own body? The worst drugs of all, alcohol and tobacco are legal, and till last century ( correct me if I'm wrong ) all the present banned drugs were legal. Remember Laudanum, and I understand COKa Cola got it's name from cocaine that was in it.

However, that is to digress, IMO, legalise all drugs. Misuse would be controlled by the same laws as for misuse of alcohol.

Sure there might be an initial increase in drug related deaths, but the population is too high anyway. I would even be happy to see addicts being GIVEN drugs on prescription, like they used to be in the UK.

Once things settled down, the police could do their job without having to deal with thousands of addict related minor crimes, and concentrate on the real crimes, like banker felony related to the destruction of millions of peoples lives in the pursuit of unlimited wealth at the expense of the average citizen, and government corruption.

[mrbp]

MrBP, you were not thinking, asdsuming you have an iota of intelligence to be able to arrive at a reasonable conclusion .

HARD drugs cause addiction, addicts need money, many addicts use hard drugs because they have such a sh*t life that they need a buzz, many also have little money, so prostitution, robbery( armed robbery,street crimes, house breakins, car theft etc). I DO HOPE THAT YOU BECOME A VICTIM OF ONE OF THESE DRUG RELATED CRIMES. Then perhaps you will start THINKING of consequencies, and maybe then you will change your attitude. 1 drug dealer, how many addicts? how many victims of the addicts need for finances for more drugs? anyone got any statistics?

Have a safe day MRBP,

You haven't got a clue what you are talking about. It seems you have done your research by reading The Daily Mail and watching Fox News. I actually know what I'm talking about and can back it up.

Herion is highly adictive both physically and mentally, crack is too but it can take up to seven years of cocaine use to become addicted and like alchohol a high percentage of users can take it recreationally without becoming addicted, although it is terrible for your heart and gives the user a boring bout of verbal diarrhea(that bloody word I can never remember how to spell it)

In no way can cocaine be put on the same level as herion and crack cocaine or alchohol for that matter.

Ecstacy is not addictive and weed doesn't kill. More people die being electrocuted switching off their alarm clock than they do overdosing on weed or dying from ecstacy.

Don't get me wrong there are dangers and I don't reccomend drugs as a healthy option but all drugs are different and to simplify it and say that

drugs=addiction=crime=murder=misery and the break down of society

is just nonsense, it's lazy uninformed thinking like that which leads to a poor country like Thailand to spend millions of dollars a year incarcerating non violent offenders.

Alchohol causes more violence than heroin and crack combined but I doubt you think it would be a good idea to lock drinkers up and throw away the key.

Even if you were right in your simplistic reading of the situation would a knee jerk draconian response of "hang em all" be the best way forward?

Well you just have to look at the drug problems in America and Thailand and compare them to Holland and Portugal to see that your support for the hang em all technique is missinformed lunacy indeed

Now I'm not one of these weed smoking hippies who thinks that weed is cool and all drugs should be legal. I hate weed I much prefer a single malt wiskey but I don't see why I should be free to get drunk on my favourite shlurp when other good people can be incacerated for taking drugs that rarely lead to violence unlike my favourite drug alchohol. Anyway people are still taking drugs even though the powers that be agree with your simplistic reading of the issue.

PS: I grew up on a council estate in London and I know all about crime and to blame it all on drugs is stupid. Please don't patronise me.

[thefalang]

Seams a light sentence

2,000 methamphetamines, that's gotta be for supply.

If it was a farang it would be either death or reduced to a 20 - 25 year stretch.

Another blatant example of double standards "and we need more examples like we need a hole in the head"

Ask any criminal lawyer in Thailand that has represented foreigners and they'll verify the double standards. I once visited a foreigner in Chiang Mai prison that had spent 5-yrs in the prision on a 7-yr sentence for using a stolen credit card. He had just been given an additional 7-yrs for a credit card purchase that had been initially overlooked during his initial sentencing! Amazing Thailand, the Land of Smiles!

After all, laws in Thailand are "rules" that only foreigners are expected to abide by.

[SM7WGP]

Take the addicts and dealers at the same time and put them away , and the problem is solved !

[bhakta]

I doubt this statement of five years if he confesses has much validity. All that money, weapons, and 2000 doses of Ya bah should be sufficient to keep him in prison for a very very long time.

[Samuian]

put him to death.

before the trial or after?

like in the heydays of the "war on drugs" before any evidence!

[chutai]

Did you see the guns on the table? That alone makes it a 25 to life felony in the US! So why should Thailand be different.

Because the whole world isn't Amercia ?

[moskito]

hmmmm... I just remembered the girl in the youtube movie BIG TROUBLE IN TOURIST THAILAND. She was caught at the full moon party with a little bit gansha and if I remember correct they talked about 12years in jail......?

Edited October 26, 2009 by moskito

[bubba]

In 2004, Stephen Wilcox, a UK citizen, was convicted and sentenced to death for the following:

1.2 ounces of heroin, one ounce of marijuana, 14 ecstasy tablets and 11 tablets of methamphetamines.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Briton-Recei...nce-t19723.html

And in 2005, a Thai drunk driver was sentenced to death for his fault in an accident that killed four people.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-...413427160?f=rss

Yet we have this unnamed "Chonburi native" who was arrested with 2,000 methamphetamine pills, 300,000 baht in cash, along with weapons, vehicles, gold and land worth 100 million baht who is about to receive five years.

Justice?

[webfact]

a double post deleted

[pedro01]

Yet we have this unnamed "Chonburi native" who was arrested with 2,000 methamphetamine pills, 300,000 baht in cash, along with weapons, vehicles, gold and land worth 100 million baht who is about to receive five years.

Justice?

OK - One more time for the hard of reading.

The guy has not been sentenced. It is merely what the reporter wrote in his article.

He's not getting 5 years !

And now follows more righteous indignation at the guys 'sentence'

[Donnyboy]

Yet we have this unnamed "Chonburi native" who was arrested with 2,000 methamphetamine pills, 300,000 baht in cash, along with weapons, vehicles, gold and land worth 100 million baht who is about to receive five years.

Justice?

probably connected to someone within political/police circles

[mrbp]

America has had a massively funded global war on drugs since the 70's with everything from draconian sentencing to foreign military intervention but the drugs business is booming more now than it ever has. Get rid of Pablo Escobar and someone fills his boots. The one thing you can be sure of is the cocaine will still be available on the New York streets and the rural American bars come rain or shine.

Locking people up or killing people will not stop drug use and drug supply.

Prohibition has failed and always will fail.

All of you anti drug loons posting on this board talk with such venom, hate and ignorance. You actually seem to be rubbing your hands with glee at the idea of people being executed for drugs. You are a contemptible bunch if thats the case.

It's as if you see the world through the prism of 'them and us' and the solution is simple. Sledgehammer meet nut, bag of twenty ecstacy in your bag meet lethal injection or 99 years in the black hole of Bkk. Really proportionate stuff. bravo!

Is this really how you see the drugs issue?

"Evil drug pushers and the nasty scummy addicts who prey on us good law abiding folk to get the money to pay the evil dealers for the evil drugs"

If it is and you think the solution must be to kill or incarcerate all dealers and addicts, thereby solving the problem then you are WRONG. YOU FAIL.

Most people who take drugs are not addicts, most people who sell drugs are not gangsters they are ordinary people who like a joint or a pill like we like a beer or a wiskey.

By oversimplifying it you are not seeing the real situation which is drugs are here to stay and as long as they are illegal they will be phenominally lucrative. While they are phenominally lucrative and the demand is high even the death penalty and life ending prison sentences will not solve the situation.

We have been trying your knee jerk policies for nearly 30 years but people are still getting high and the prisons are fit to burst. You guys are WRONG, get over it.

"THE WAR ON DRUGS" Whether it's American or Thai style only creates more crime, more overdoses, more addiction and fills up the prisons with non violent offenders but the drugs keep coming because the money is big and so is the demand.

This way the drugs cause misery and so does the governments draconian response to the drugs, DOUBLE MISERY.

Well done, good job, I'm glad I'm glad the powers that be think the same way you Daily Mail/Fox News educated expats. We are in good hands.

PS: Holland and Porugal have not descended into chaos and almost every independant poll points to these countries populations having much smaller drug problems than America, the UK or Thailand. Even if they had a slightly bigger drug problem the fact that the government isn't paying billions of dollars to split up families and lock up thousands of non violent people means that the overall effect on these societies has been positive but fortunately their drug problems seem to have reduced so it really is win win.

[Grey11]

Listen you bloody muppets - there has been no sentence.

It's just what the journalist wrote in his piece.

Has there been an IQ ceiling implemented here at Thaivisa for new members or something ???

Why in the hel_l do you care what people write? It is their opinion and they are entitled to it. IQ? How is that even arrived at nowadays?

Speaking of somenone's IQ could be racist and is not allowed.

[Grey11]

Did you see the guns on the table? That alone makes it a 25 to life felony in the US! So why should Thailand be different.

Because the whole world isn't Amercia ?

America? Central America, North America, South America or do you speak of the United States of America. Certainly anyone can buy their way out of a situation like that in Central & South America.

[mrbp]

Pedro you are right all of this indignation of a sentence that hasn't even been passed cracks me up. Whats even funnier is that you have said it twice and the following post has been more anger at the non existent sentence.

But I can't help thinking there must be some reason for the paper to say that his sentence would be so reasonable. I doubt they plucked it from thin air because scary sentences sells more papers. Much more dramatic to say that he could face 150 years in Bkk notorious yada yada than to say 10 years reduced to 5 for a guilty plea. Someone in authority must have said he faces 10 years with a reduction for a guilty plea.

Sometimes the press lie but they tend to exagerate to sell papers not the other way around.

Anyway as I said you will get no righteous indignation with me. 5 or 10 years is more than enough for a drug offence it's the guns that are much more serious in my book.

[loong]

Yet we have this unnamed "Chonburi native" who was arrested with 2,000 methamphetamine pills, 300,000 baht in cash, along with weapons, vehicles, gold and land worth 100 million baht who is about to receive five years.

Justice?

OK - One more time for the hard of reading.

The guy has not been sentenced. It is merely what the reporter wrote in his article.

He's not getting 5 years !

And now follows more righteous indignation at the guys 'sentence'

Well actually it's a quote attributed to Col Suttirat Tojamba....

According to arresting officer Col Suttirat Tojamba,the suspect is now being held in Bangkok and faces a ten-year jail sentence. If, however, he confesses to the crime, that sentence may be reduced to five years.

[bubba]

Yet we have this unnamed "Chonburi native" who was arrested with 2,000 methamphetamine pills, 300,000 baht in cash, along with weapons, vehicles, gold and land worth 100 million baht who is about to receive five years.

Justice?

OK - One more time for the hard of reading.

The guy has not been sentenced. It is merely what the reporter wrote in his article.

He's not getting 5 years !

And now follows more righteous indignation at the guys 'sentence'

Thank you, Pedro. Many of us are indeed literate, and if you are as well, you no doubt read the text of the article, which states:

"According to arresting officer Col Suttirat Tojamba,the suspect is now being held in Bangkok and faces a ten-year jail sentence. If, however, he confesses to the crime, that sentence may be reduced to five years. "

I believe we "righteously indignant" are referring to the police colonel's statement, and he is no doubt in a position to predict what charges will be laid. Read again: the statement was attributed to a police colonel. It was not an opinion or fabrication of the reporter.

[sedeflonga]

hmmmm... I just remembered the girl in the youtube movie BIG TROUBLE IN TOURIST THAILAND. She was caught at the full moon party with a little bit gansha and if I remember correct they talked about 12years in jail......?

she was released after court hearing. No jail sentence was handed down.

America has had a massively funded global war on drugs since the 70's with everything from draconian sentencing to foreign military intervention but the drugs business is booming more now than it ever has. Get rid of Pablo Escobar and someone fills his boots. The one thing you can be sure of is the cocaine will still be available on the New York streets and the rural American bars come rain or shine.

Locking people up or killing people will not stop drug use and drug supply.

Prohibition has failed and always will fail.

All of you anti drug loons posting on this board talk with such venom, hate and ignorance. You actually seem to be rubbing your hands with glee at the idea of people being executed for drugs. You are a contemptible bunch if thats the case.

It's as if you see the world through the prism of 'them and us' and the solution is simple. Sledgehammer meet nut, bag of twenty ecstacy in your bag meet lethal injection or 99 years in the black hole of Bkk. Really proportionate stuff. bravo!

Is this really how you see the drugs issue?

"Evil drug pushers and the nasty scummy addicts who prey on us good law abiding folk to get the money to pay the evil dealers for the evil drugs"

If it is and you think the solution must be to kill or incarcerate all dealers and addicts, thereby solving the problem then you are WRONG. YOU FAIL.

Most people who take drugs are not addicts, most people who sell drugs are not gangsters they are ordinary people who like a joint or a pill like we like a beer or a wiskey.

By oversimplifying it you are not seeing the real situation which is drugs are here to stay and as long as they are illegal they will be phenominally lucrative. While they are phenominally lucrative and the demand is high even the death penalty and life ending prison sentences will not solve the situation.

We have been trying your knee jerk policies for nearly 30 years but people are still getting high and the prisons are fit to burst. You guys are WRONG, get over it.

"THE WAR ON DRUGS" Whether it's American or Thai style only creates more crime, more overdoses, more addiction and fills up the prisons with non violent offenders but the drugs keep coming because the money is big and so is the demand.

This way the drugs cause misery and so does the governments draconian response to the drugs, DOUBLE MISERY.

Well done, good job, I'm glad I'm glad the powers that be think the same way you Daily Mail/Fox News educated expats. We are in good hands.

PS: Holland and Porugal have not descended into chaos and almost every independant poll points to these countries populations having much smaller drug problems than America, the UK or Thailand. Even if they had a slightly bigger drug problem the fact that the government isn't paying billions of dollars to split up families and lock up thousands of non violent people means that the overall effect on these societies has been positive but fortunately their drug problems seem to have reduced so it really is win win.

lets talk about this again if one of your child gets addicted to something like methamphetamine, heroin...

[captnhoy]

I'll share some facts that I know of on a different case for your comparison.

A Thai man that I know was caught with 200 yaba tablets in his possesion. He confessed to the crime of possession with intent to distribute and his 6 year sentence, at trial, was reduced to 3 years. The quirk in his case is that his wife is doing 3 years too even though she was not in possession. If she had not confessed and had been found guilty, she would have been sentenced to 6 years. She decided not to gamble.

The property that they lost was a late model pickup truck.

The guy was a good family man who built fishing boats. He was convinced in Laos, where he went regularly to purchase lumber, to supplement his income. I do not think of him as a bad man. He certainly had a bad idea.

Flame away.

[CHINWA]

PS: Holland and Porugal have not descended into chaos and almost every independant poll points to these countries populations having much smaller drug problems than America, the UK or Thailand. Even if they had a slightly bigger drug problem the fact that the government isn't paying billions of dollars to split up families and lock up thousands of non violent people means that the overall effect on these societies has been positive but fortunately their drug problems seem to have reduced so it really is win win.

Holland has a different law than Portugal. All drugs are illegal and both users and dealers are punished. Less problems than other countries is true but don't forget in Portugal the population is around 8 Mil being 2/3 over 50 years of age. Wrong comparison.

[lonelyrw]

Only 5 years?Dealers in a class 1 drug normally get live reduced to 25 years if they confess.But in this case the man has goodies to distribute.About 100 million Bath.

[Arkady]

No point in getting over excited about a quote of a policemen in the Phuket Gazette. His reported speculation about the sentence doesn't seem right at all and may have been a misquote. Not even taking the drugs into account he could get 10 years for just one of the unregistered fire arms. It is more likely he will draw several sentences to run consecutively, if sentenced, each of which could be more than 10 years. /even after discount for confession, 25 years seems more likely than 5 years and the courts are known to give less discount for confessions of those caught red handed.

[asiawatcher]

Rules are rules - this guy is a known repeat offender - he will plead guilty and dob in a few other guys he will get off lightly most likely - but in a country that hands out 5 years for defamation - kinda makes you wonder... But any time in a Thai jail is not 3 squares, free dental and colour TV - agree with all - 5 years is stupid - do the crime do the time.

[mrbp]

hmmmm... I just remembered the girl in the youtube movie BIG TROUBLE IN TOURIST THAILAND. She was caught at the full moon party with a little bit gansha and if I remember correct they talked about 12years in jail......?

she was released after court hearing. No jail sentence was handed down.

America has had a massively funded global war on drugs since the 70's with everything from draconian sentencing to foreign military intervention but the drugs business is booming more now than it ever has. Get rid of Pablo Escobar and someone fills his boots. The one thing you can be sure of is the cocaine will still be available on the New York streets and the rural American bars come rain or shine.

Locking people up or killing people will not stop drug use and drug supply.

Prohibition has failed and always will fail.

All of you anti drug loons posting on this board talk with such venom, hate and ignorance. You actually seem to be rubbing your hands with glee at the idea of people being executed for drugs. You are a contemptible bunch if thats the case.

It's as if you see the world through the prism of 'them and us' and the solution is simple. Sledgehammer meet nut, bag of twenty ecstacy in your bag meet lethal injection or 99 years in the black hole of Bkk. Really proportionate stuff. bravo!

Is this really how you see the drugs issue?

"Evil drug pushers and the nasty scummy addicts who prey on us good law abiding folk to get the money to pay the evil dealers for the evil drugs"

If it is and you think the solution must be to kill or incarcerate all dealers and addicts, thereby solving the problem then you are WRONG. YOU FAIL.

Most people who take drugs are not addicts, most people who sell drugs are not gangsters they are ordinary people who like a joint or a pill like we like a beer or a wiskey.

By oversimplifying it you are not seeing the real situation which is drugs are here to stay and as long as they are illegal they will be phenominally lucrative. While they are phenominally lucrative and the demand is high even the death penalty and life ending prison sentences will not solve the situation.

We have been trying your knee jerk policies for nearly 30 years but people are still getting high and the prisons are fit to burst. You guys are WRONG, get over it.

"THE WAR ON DRUGS" Whether it's American or Thai style only creates more crime, more overdoses, more addiction and fills up the prisons with non violent offenders but the drugs keep coming because the money is big and so is the demand.

This way the drugs cause misery and so does the governments draconian response to the drugs, DOUBLE MISERY.

Well done, good job, I'm glad I'm glad the powers that be think the same way you Daily Mail/Fox News educated expats. We are in good hands.

PS: Holland and Porugal have not descended into chaos and almost every independant poll points to these countries populations having much smaller drug problems than America, the UK or Thailand. Even if they had a slightly bigger drug problem the fact that the government isn't paying billions of dollars to split up families and lock up thousands of non violent people means that the overall effect on these societies has been positive but fortunately their drug problems seem to have reduced so it really is win win.

lets talk about this again if one of your child gets addicted to something like methamphetamine, heroin...

I grew up on a council estate I know all about the dangers of drugs both legal and illegal.

I have grown up around violent alchoholics who regularly gambled away the rent money and eventually die of liver faliure but it never crossed my mind that the bars and bookies should be shut down, the publicans executed and the bookmakers sentenced to 99 years without parole.

A child drinks a litre of cider and dies after having his stumoch pumped and you and I are partly responsible for that because we are partial to a round of Leo Beers? Think of the poor child who would not have died if you hadn't been so pro booze.

Isn't it the same?

Think about it, thats what you are saying, if a child gets addicted to drugs it's because drugs were being sold to that child by an evil drug dealer therefore the answer is to kill or incarcerate all dealers and criminalise all users to save the children.

Imagine if the government decided to do that with alchohol, good law abiding people like yourself and others would soon find yourselves branded as criminals and junkies as you bought your liquor from criminals and made your sneaky stash of moonshine.

I doubt you would give up your beer just becuase some obnoctious git got drunk and ended up beating his wife black and blue. Why should you pay for his weakness? Why should you be locked up for your Johnnie Walker just because some stupid kid drank to much cider?

Just because a child dies of an asthma attack after smoking her fist cigarette behind the bike shed should you be penalised harshly for smoking? Should you be imprisoned for 99 years because your penchant for tobacco creates a culture in which that child decided to smoke and then died?

Your "save the children" argument is just as valid for legal drugs

The children need protection from drugs therefore life sentences and the death penalty are good things because the evils of drugs are so bad that the only responsible response should be a draconian one.

Shouldn't we applaud the execution of an Iranian alchohol dealer just the way you applaud the execution of the Thai ecstacy dealer?

If executions and life ending prison sentences are so effective why are people still taking drugs in America and Thailand. Why are Iranians still drinking wiskey?

Can you tell me why children need the protection of harsh laws from the evils of ecstacy but not alchohol

If someone abused my child I would want to torture them but I don't think that society should start state sanctioned torture or be in the business of revenge.

You are arguing from ignorance and emotion.

Sure if my child got addicted to heroin or cigarettes I would want to eradicate tabacco and opium from the face of the earth but it would be a futile wish.

Thats why we don't for the most part put angry parents in charge of creating laws and implimenting them.

Think before you post because you need more than emotion and ignorance to get anywhere.

Ohh the children!

Of course it's terrible when someone gets addicted to anything whether it's crack, nicotine or alchohol but it's doesn't help matters locking people up or killing them

You are wrong I am right and the "think of the children" argument does not give you moral authority or stop you from being WRONG.

[barry]

when he gets out

can he run for office?

[walterego]

I don't think the newspaper that reported the bust actually has the right to sentence the guy.

As such - reserve your righteous indignation until the trial, if there is one.

TIT - don't read too much into what's in the newspaper.

Good call Pedro.

[mrbp]

PS: Holland and Porugal have not descended into chaos and almost every independant poll points to these countries populations having much smaller drug problems than America, the UK or Thailand. Even if they had a slightly bigger drug problem the fact that the government isn't paying billions of dollars to split up families and lock up thousands of non violent people means that the overall effect on these societies has been positive but fortunately their drug problems seem to have reduced so it really is win win.

Holland has a different law than Portugal. All drugs are illegal and both users and dealers are punished. Less problems than other countries is true but don't forget in Portugal the population is around 8 Mil being 2/3 over 50 years of age. Wrong comparison.

The thing is all of the evidence points to the conclusion that prohibition doesn't eradicate drugs it just crimnalises non violent people, makes billions for gangsters and the harsh laws go on to ruin even more lives than the drugs themselves.

The two countries which have decided to decriminalise drugs have not ended up with children pumped full of heroin dying in the streets and the junkies no longer have to pay the high prices that prohibition cause so crime goes down. Win win

Phibition does not work FACT

[vahack]

so if a foreigner brings a joint into Thailand, or even get caught with remnants in a plastic bag, he gets 99-life. But if a local, well known dealer admits what he does is illegal, he gets 5 years? <deleted>? How is that in compliance with the Thai constitution?

This is the most likely scenario if the reported sentence is even correct. These newspapers are rarely correct but I can certainly see Thailand being softer on crime with Thais. They hate farangs here, especially drug dealing farangs. Even half of my village hates farangs and I give a lot of money to the community. The older people are the worst. Its just part of Thai culture.

You watch Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand? The farang in ep2-4 from Phuket caught with 5,200 ecstasy pills got 50 years. So most likely this is just another case of bad Thai news reporting.

[moskito]

America has had a massively funded global war on drugs since the 70's with everything from draconian sentencing to foreign military intervention but the drugs business is booming more now than it ever has. Get rid of Pablo Escobar and someone fills his boots. The one thing you can be sure of is the cocaine will still be available on the New York streets and the rural American bars come rain or shine.

Locking people up or killing people will not stop drug use and drug supply.

Prohibition has failed and always will fail.

All of you anti drug loons posting on this board talk with such venom, hate and ignorance. You actually seem to be rubbing your hands with glee at the idea of people being executed for drugs. You are a contemptible bunch if thats the case.

It's as if you see the world through the prism of 'them and us' and the solution is simple. Sledgehammer meet nut, bag of twenty ecstacy in your bag meet lethal injection or 99 years in the black hole of Bkk. Really proportionate stuff. bravo!

Is this really how you see the drugs issue?

"Evil drug pushers and the nasty scummy addicts who prey on us good law abiding folk to get the money to pay the evil dealers for the evil drugs"

If it is and you think the solution must be to kill or incarcerate all dealers and addicts, thereby solving the problem then you are WRONG. YOU FAIL.

Most people who take drugs are not addicts, most people who sell drugs are not gangsters they are ordinary people who like a joint or a pill like we like a beer or a wiskey.

By oversimplifying it you are not seeing the real situation which is drugs are here to stay and as long as they are illegal they will be phenominally lucrative. While they are phenominally lucrative and the demand is high even the death penalty and life ending prison sentences will not solve the situation.

We have been trying your knee jerk policies for nearly 30 years but people are still getting high and the prisons are fit to burst. You guys are WRONG, get over it.

"THE WAR ON DRUGS" Whether it's American or Thai style only creates more crime, more overdoses, more addiction and fills up the prisons with non violent offenders but the drugs keep coming because the money is big and so is the demand.

This way the drugs cause misery and so does the governments draconian response to the drugs, DOUBLE MISERY.

Well done, good job, I'm glad I'm glad the powers that be think the same way you Daily Mail/Fox News educated expats. We are in good hands.

PS: Holland and Porugal have not descended into chaos and almost every independant poll points to these countries populations having much smaller drug problems than America, the UK or Thailand. Even if they had a slightly bigger drug problem the fact that the government isn't paying billions of dollars to split up families and lock up thousands of non violent people means that the overall effect on these societies has been positive but fortunately their drug problems seem to have reduced so it really is win win.

maybe you should show one post here of a ppl who wanted the death penalty for drug abusers?

I guess most of the ThaiVisa members are not so stupid as you think. There are for sure some guys here which have their education from FOX news or other USAmerican newspapers and magazines but thats not the predominantly fraction here!

Long jail sentences make nobody better and the BIG GUYS who are really behind Heroin, Cocaine and Methamphetamines will never be catched. Its not only Thailand where some bigheads make their share on drugs USAmerica made is share also!

OK but thats all Off Topic. I hate only that the small users are sentenced with hard penalties and the dealers go for free.....and 5years for such an amount is nearly free in Thailand. But as far as I know there was no Trial nor a penalty yet!

Phuket Police stop a lot of motobikes here atm, mostly farang. They are not intrested in driving licences or helmets, they just checking pockets of people and sometimes they find something what not belongs there. I think its a good idea. Drugs like Cocaine become more and more popular in Phuket Nai Harn area and I have no sympathy for everybody the police catch.

The best drug is a healthy mind, drugs are for LOOSERS