Kathu Police change drug testing policy

The new drug testing policy will put an end to surprise raids that horrified tourists put a damper on a fun night out. File photo.

PHUKET CITY: To keep Patong free of drugs, Kathu Police have adopted a new strategy that focuses on a new method of random drug testing for nightclub staff.

Kathu Police Superintendent Grissak Songmoonnark said that Kathu is compiling lists of staff from participating nightclub owners in order to conduct surprise urine testing to see if staff test positive for ya bah (methamphetamine).

The common test regimen involves adding a reagent to the urine samples. If the urine turns purple, the person is considered to be positive for ya bah, but the test needs to be confirmed by a blood test.

Under the new strategy club owners will call their workers for a staff meeting at which the surprise tests will be conducted. This will put an end to the need for having to raid clubs during peak hours with officials from a number of different agencies, he said.

Col Grissak said the project is already underway and working well. Those who test positive, both Thai and foreigners, are instructed to seek treatment, he said.

The new strategy is based on the assumption that most people who seek out narcotics source them from staff at nightclubs and other entertainment venues, he said.

“If we keep the clubs drug-free, tourists will find it hard to buy them,” he said.

-- Phuket Gazette 2009/12/23

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Hey employees we have a drug screening by the police. Ops I mean staff meeting.

Nothing like notifying them in advance that staff meeting today at 5pm = drug test so better stay home.

Do most of these targeted venues even have staff meetings on a regular basis? If not I can see a lot of employees being sick on staff meeting days.

It is nice that tourists supposedly won't be targets anymore.

Will see how long this last. Think of how much money will be lost. Scared tourist really don’t want to know what a Thai police station really looks like.

So they are assuming that the drug dealers are themselves going to be high?

Also I've done a fair bit of partying around Thailand and been offered drugs on plenty of occasions, but never once has any staff member at any 'entertainment venue' offered to sell me drugs. Is this really a problem in Phuket?

omg, I really want to know where the Thai Authorities always have their funny ideas from

may be if they pay their BiB better than the dealers do, it will minimize the drugs sold in Phuket (for a while) but I doubt they can

btw. there is no so called fun area with bars, discothekes and billiard pubs on this planet without a drug periphery anymore!

So they are assuming that the drug dealers are themselves going to be high?

Also I've done a fair bit of partying around Thailand and been offered drugs on plenty of occasions, but never once has any staff member at any 'entertainment venue' offered to sell me drugs. Is this really a problem in Phuket?

I was under the impression that pushers were themselves users and bought more than their needs, then sold off the surplus at prices to cover the cost of their own consumption. If that is so then wouldn't the management, (I use the term loosely), notice that their staff behave strangely at times and get rid of them else their bar/bordello ran the risk of being closed down?

No danger of the big time dealers make use of their own goods. How typical of BiB to just scratch the surface.

Any bar owner "inviting his staff to a meeting" better be bloody quick on his feet, because he will be the only one serving behind the bar that night.

another opportunity for BIB to extort tea money

*owner gets tipped off if they pay fine

*staff members pay to get all clear from BIB

This is disingenuous, you don't necessarily have to take drugs to deal them. You don't have even be staff to deal them, surely it's the patrons that should be tested. Hey, why not put plain clothes police on the dance floor trying to score drugs, isn't that the easiest way to weed out the dealers, then you don't have to scare all the tourists and patrons away and ruin business with random urine tests. Well, I suppose that piss off the club owners who pay off the police and in turn are paid off by the dealers. Sometimes I think these high publicity stunts from the police are just there to show they are doing something, without them having to upset the gravy train.

Oh, oh, another day, another crackdown. How long will this one last?

And, as always, let's put it in the paper so everyone knows what's coming down. Although I must say, it's better than the raids that brought everything and everyone to a screeching halt.

Officials need it...

"blow one's own horn"

What they probably mean is that most tourists (male tourists anyway) will try to score drugs through a prostitute.

I imagine that is one of the fastest ways to find drugs in any particular place ... a lot of prostitutes use them (compared to the normal population anyway) and she's already doing something illegal so is unlikely to rat somebody out to police.

I doubt the police care about safety, however, they're probably just trying to eliminate their competitors.