Immigration Conduct Random 'Surprise' Drug Tests Of Foreigners On Sukhumvit Soi 3

[Katipo]

Soi 3 is the 'hub' of African drug dealing in Bangkok, if not Thailand. It's very visible, and no secret. I think this was actually a good move by the BIB (for once).

[joseph49]

Samples were then sold as tiger beer....

[filguy]

Well 'selected foreigners' around there...you wouldn't have to be Einstein to work out who they'd be targeting...there's the African bar just down from The Bamboo Club and any time you walk past there you get stoned by the smoke wafting out!!

Using race a factor to arrest? racial profiling is illegal to many countries..

[Daewoo]

What a freaking joke.....I've been to about 25 countries and this is the only one which allows it, imagine that...... Thailand and North Korea on the same page, who would ever guess?

Australia does it (well I know they do in Sydney anyway)...

Police raid on nightclubs where there are known drug issues, sniffer dogs, all patrons and staff drug tested using field test kits, and if a positive result are taken to the police station for a proper test...

At the entrances, and within music festivals they often have undercover and uniformed police...

not a problem for me - I just drink until I can't stand up - perfectly legal

[drdoom6996]

What a joke! They should really be targeting taxi drivers, bus drivers, BTS operators, and MRT operators who pose a much greater risk while high on drugs, not someone walking the streets at night. Thailand is getting to be more anti-foreigner by the day. That's ok, because we are not stupid and we are looking elsewhere to spend our money.....I'm in the process of moving my money to Viet Nam

Why would immigration officers target Thais?

Good point, Although I would say why not target Thais? That is the principle for me. Surely we are not saying that immigration police only police crimes committed by foreigners !! If an immigration policeman sees a Thai robbing a 7/11 he wouldn't just ignore it because he is immigration police.

My follow on from that would be why are immigration police going out to check for drugs and not just normal police anyway.

We all know that Thai's don't do drugs.

[peterdk]

What a joke! They should really be targeting taxi drivers, bus drivers, BTS operators, and MRT operators who pose a much greater risk while high on drugs, not someone walking the streets at night. Thailand is getting to be more anti-foreigner by the day. That's ok, because we are not stupid and we are looking elsewhere to spend our money.....I'm in the process of moving my money to Viet Nam

Why would immigration officers target Thais?

Good point, Although I would say why not target Thais? That is the principle for me. Surely we are not saying that immigration police only police crimes committed by foreigners !! If an immigration policeman sees a Thai robbing a 7/11 he wouldn't just ignore it because he is immigration police.

My follow on from that would be why are immigration police going out to check for drugs and not just normal police anyway.

On the odd occation I have been to Patong, in terms of drug testing,I have seen the police target Thais only and let foreigners throgh without as much as a second look.

I suspect it works both ways, sometimes the police have it in for the Thais, sometimes foreigners.

[Deaw]

What a freaking joke.....I've been to about 25 countries and this is the only one which allows it, imagine that...... Thailand and North Korea on the same page, who would ever guess?

Australia does it (well I know they do in Sydney anyway)...

Police raid on nightclubs where there are known drug issues, sniffer dogs, all patrons and staff drug tested using field test kits, and if a positive result are taken to the police station for a proper test...

See, for all of our faults {like Texas and Kim Kardashian, to name but 2}, America would not allow something like that - hopefully ever.

Probable cause is in our constitution, same as being read your rights to have an attorney after being arrested. There is no way a cop could ever ask you to pee into a cup for no reason, even if you are walking out of a reggae festival! Or a rave, or a Grateful Dead concert.....you have to break a law FIRST, even something minor like disturbing the peace or pissing on a tree, etc....to get pee-tested.

But even then it would be highly unlikely. Unless it was something really serious you'd get processed and let out on bail, with no drug test ever being done.

People can give the states all the crap they want, and we get a lot of it, but at least in this instance we are indeed 'free'.

[FarangTalk]

It seems not possible to have such a high success rate with a group of genuinely randomly selected foreigners in Nana. If the tests were genuine and accurate they must have targeted a group of known drug users. On the other hand I would doubt the accuracy of any type of drug or alcohol testing done by Thai police. They didn't even bother to say what drugs they were testing for. I remember an episode at the Q Bar under Purachai's social order campaign where police barricaded customers inside the bar and tested their pee. Several women who tested positive were able to get re-tested immediately at Bumrungrad and the doctors there found them drug free but all were having or about to have their periods. No males tested positive and in the end the police were only able to arrest and fine foreigners for not carrying their passports to get their arrest stats up.

BTW contrary to popular belief a copy of your passport, even a notarised and laminated copy is not acceptable under these circumstances. There is no mention of copies of ID documents in the regulations.

That episode in Q Bar resulted in 90 foreigners being arrested for not having their passports.

In my 12 years in Bangkok I have seen many places raided for random drug testing, most notably back in April Soi 22 in Sukhumvit was raided just after I went home at 3am.

[rangers]

Thai authorities are very strict when it comes to drugs. One of the strictest in the world. They want to convey the message of a 0% tolerance to drugs in the kingdom.

You surely couldn't pay your way out of being caught with drugs, right?

Wrong!!

[belg]

why not kick out all farangs? so thailand can be as in their nationalistic song : for thais only

[happysanook]

It seems not possible to have such a high success rate with a group of genuinely randomly selected foreigners in Nana. If the tests were genuine and accurate they must have targeted a group of known drug users. On the other hand I would doubt the accuracy of any type of drug or alcohol testing done by Thai police. They didn't even bother to say what drugs they were testing for. I remember an episode at the Q Bar under Purachai's social order campaign where police barricaded customers inside the bar and tested their pee. Several women who tested positive were able to get re-tested immediately at Bumrungrad and the doctors there found them drug free but all were having or about to have their periods. No males tested positive and in the end the police were only able to arrest and fine foreigners for not carrying their passports to get their arrest stats up.

BTW contrary to popular belief a copy of your passport, even a notarised and laminated copy is not acceptable under these circumstances. There is no mention of copies of ID documents in the regulations.

I'm not sure about "not possible", but I wouldn't be shocked to find out half the positives were bumbles.

And what drugs were they? You people saying [lock 'em up / throw 'em out] make me chuckle.

[sirchai]

Seems that they didn't catch some TV members.....

[Puccini]

Note they caught one for not carrying a passport. That should answer the oft asked question.

From the news article linked in the first post of this thread:

Police also found one foreigner not carrying a passport...

This answers the question whether the police, when they conduct drug tests of foreigners, ask the foreigners to show their passports. I don't think I have ever seen this question asked. I guess it is considered normal that when the police want to identify a foreigner they ask him for his passport.

[Mooner]

People are congratulating the police on a few arrests. This is just another token gesture!! Everyone who visits Sukhumvit knows where the drugs come from.

So instead of targeting tourists, why dont they go and arrest the guys we all see walking around the Sukhumvit area or maybe that would result in loosing some serious tea money!

Before people start saying how do you know they didnt? Just go to Sukhumvit tonight and the same faces will be there!

[frozin1]

If someone has not taken drugs then they have nothing to fear

A positive test result even though you have not taken illegal drugs (or had taken legal drugs that can cause a positive test result) would be something to fear.

Well that's corruption for you, also I doubt very much the test would show up paracetamol for example. Any foreigner that lives in Thailand and does not have the phone number of one influential person should get one and use it when wrongly accused of a serious offence.

So exactly where would I obtain "the phone number of one influential person"? Advertise on CraigsList?

If I, for example, had taken no drugs legal or illegal over the last 365 days, but had a poppyseed bagel with creamcheese this morning. I would now test positive for opiates. I'm just saying.... watch out for the bagels!

[crobe]

What a freaking joke.....I've been to about 25 countries and this is the only one which allows it, imagine that...... Thailand and North Korea on the same page, who would ever guess?

Australia does it (well I know they do in Sydney anyway)...

Police raid on nightclubs where there are known drug issues, sniffer dogs, all patrons and staff drug tested using field test kits, and if a positive result are taken to the police station for a proper test...

See, for all of our faults {like Texas and Kim Kardashian, to name but 2}, America would not allow something like that - hopefully ever.

Probable cause is in our constitution, same as being read your rights to have an attorney after being arrested. There is no way a cop could ever ask you to pee into a cup for no reason, even if you are walking out of a reggae festival! Or a rave, or a Grateful Dead concert.....you have to break a law FIRST, even something minor like disturbing the peace or pissing on a tree, etc....to get pee-tested.

But even then it would be highly unlikely. Unless it was something really serious you'd get processed and let out on bail, with no drug test ever being done.

People can give the states all the crap they want, and we get a lot of it, but at least in this instance we are indeed 'free'.

While I agree with you at the moment - for how long??

The Arizona law SB1070 was specifically designed to do what you are claiming that the US does not do.

It required that state law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual's immigration status during a "lawful stop, detention or arrest", or during a "lawful contact" not specific to any activity when there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is an illegal immigrant.

It also required all immigrants to carry their documents at all times - so not much different to Thailand then.

The Supreme court this week struck down the reasonable suspicion part, requiring that there had to be suspicion of an offense, but left the rest intact, including warrantless arrests.

I think the US you dream about is fading fast

Crobe

[Wavefloater]

What an amazingly xenophobic and arrogant people Thais are.

I remember some years ago when the police started going into bars in Pattaya that were frequented by many foreigners and pulling everybody out, getting them to sit at the side of the road (like animals) and drug testing them. I can still remember the photos in one of the local e-rags. It was at that point that I decided to NEVER go into Pattaya bar ever again. I don't do drugs and wasn't worried about testing positive (although I'm sure tests have been rigged to show positive results when the BIB wants or needs more cash). So, even if I wasn't victim to a rigged test, being in this type of situation automatically puts a stigma of guilt on people. And the way that Thais love to gossip, especially about foreigners, could be disaster for someone who was innocently enjoying a drink. I assure you that if one of my Thai colleagues saw me lined up on the curb for drug testing that my reputation at work would quickly be destroyed regardless of what the test results were.

I really hope people will catch on to what a terrible vacation choice Thailand has become and spend their holiday money in the neighboring countries instead.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Wavefloater

[tzthib]

What a joke! They should really be targeting taxi drivers, bus drivers, BTS operators, and MRT operators who pose a much greater risk while high on drugs, not someone walking the streets at night. Thailand is getting to be more anti-foreigner by the day. That's ok, because we are not stupid and we are looking elsewhere to spend our money.....I'm in the process of moving my money to Viet Nam

Why would immigration officers target Thais?

Im not sure how it works here, but isnt the immigration police supposed to work on immigration issues, visas, and whatnot? Is drug testing foreigners really their responsibility? Im pretty sure the ICE in the US does not go around drug testing all non-citizens. Once in the country legally you are the local police's problem.

I also find a 50% positive rate extremely high. Although actually testing positive and having the Thai police tell you its positive are two totally different things. Sounds more like a shakedown than real police work.

[Docno]

So what do they do if these foreigners took drugs before entering the Kingdom and it was still in their system?

What did they actually do to those that tested positive here as the story doesn't elaborate? Bribes, jail, deportation?

Just so you know if you ever come down to Singapore... the authorities here have actually tested people arriving at the airport here and charged them with drug use for 'overseas violations'. Most famously it happened to a young Singaporean couple who were returning from university in Oz and who were found to have THC in their systems.

[Semper]

I wonder what the government wants to do .....kick out the tourists from the country ? There is no better way ..... Then in a few months they will come and cry that tourism is lower than last year ...with all those restrictions I wont be surprise .

"with all those restrictions"

Oh dear, another one just off the boat. What do you want, a drug haven for tourists? And why do you care if drug tourism is dropping?

[monty1412]

Sorry guys stop name calling,to early for shit like that.Back to the what happend.What is the problem with drug check in a area that the police suspect there are drugs? I would piss in a cup with i smile. If people doing drugs then good the get arrested, put them in jail and then out of the country.I realy dont se this as a rasist act.If its a area have is a lot of foreigner and the suspect drugs, its logic that they are the one that get checked.And 16 of them was tested positive?wow i would say for once the police did a great job to get some shit head drug users.

crille30- agree with you and overall this is good however just targeting endusers does nothing and immigration folks should work closely with Drug Enforcement folks to find out where these folks got the drugs from. Just doing users is like combating pollution by picking up papers from the side walk.

Perhaps targeting foreigners is an easy way to get to the bigger fish in which case Im all for it.. just targeting foreigners alone to me doesn't seem whole equation.... having thought about that as i write however the point comes to me that maybe allot of drug trade domestically is financed and underpinned by the tourist trade and as such making Thailand less drug friendly to tourists may also help the domestic drug problem. I dont know

when it comes to drugs i don't give a flying crap about civil liberties.. Ill piss in a tin cup anytime... just hope i havenet had asparagus a few hours earlier

[Ianatlarge]

"urine tests"—for some reason that makes me laugh. "Sorry officer, normally like a racehorse, but I cannot pee with someone watching."

[daiwill60]

From a drug tests related news, to a name calling and now a language issue!!!

TIT VN

This is Thai Visa Nation , gets worse and worse to be honest. Just like school kids in a school yard, or should that be vocational students in vocational college yards.

[bangon04]

Thai authorities are very strict when it comes to drugs. One of the strictest in the world. They want to convey the message of a 0% tolerance to drugs in the kingdom.

Well as usual the message is different from the reality. It doesn't take a police mastermind to find out who is supplying the drugs in and around Sukhumvit. Maybe the message actually reads: "0% tolerance every last Monday night of the month between the hours of 10pm and 11pm"

Edited June 29, 2012 by bangon04

[hawker9000]

Soi 3 - so yes, this was a targeted sweep. Not really accurate to generalize and stir up hysteria over random drug-testing of foreigners everywhere...

Immigration Police - so no, you wouldn't expect them to be randomly stopping & testing thais.

Urine testing - false positives would be my only concern here. No idea what the actual rate is, or whether a positive test in the street results in a follow-up confirming test in a medical facility. I don't like asparagus, or indulge in poppy-seed bagels.

Alcohol also a drug - get real. And drunk is one thing, drunk & obnoxious another, drunk and a danger to yourself or others yet another. If you're a tee-totaler (or trying to rationalize drug use), go sell it somewhere else. But I do agree that those who can't hold their liquor, and cause problems for others, absolutely should be held accountable. But mere participation in a bar crawl doesn't exclude you from the family of man... We don't need Thai cops (or cops anywhere) randomly stopping folks on the street to check BAC. The idea itself is laughable; checking for drugs in areas known to be frequented by users & traffickers not unreasonable.

Raids targeting foreigners who are merely patrons in Pattaya bars - well, maybe there've been some. 'Never heard of any such thing except maybe under the most isolated of circumstances. I've never seen it or actually known anyone involved in such an event. Not saying it couldn't happen, but things do happen in Thailand that are simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Carrying of passports - well, I guess you have to weigh the risk & inconvenience of being stopped and asked for your passport against the risk & inconvenience of having it lost or stolen. I, having never been asked to produce it, just carry a photocopy of mine, knowing that I can easily produce it in my hotel room if asked. If that should result in my having to pay a fine, then I pay a fine. But, I wouldn't be the first to have to pay some arbitrary "fine" to the BIB, and the consequences of having it lost or stolen just seem far worse to me.

[Kilgore Trout]

Sorry guys stop name calling,to early for shit like that.Back to the what happend.What is the problem with drug check in a area that the police suspect there are drugs? I would piss in a cup with i smile. If people doing drugs then good the get arrested, put them in jail and then out of the country.I realy dont se this as a rasist act.If its a area have is a lot of foreigner and the suspect drugs, its logic that they are the one that get checked.And 16 of them was tested positive?wow i would say for once the police did a great job to get some shit head drug users.

I agree with your concept if they had also tested Thais but the article says selected foreigners. That is what got my back up.

As far as the drugs go yes I agree they seemed to do a great job, well done to them.

As far as I know, the police need a warrant to pee test you, so what they are doing is illegal.

Eating poppy seed muffins can cause a false positive as well. What about people from say, California who purchase weed legally, they should be told by their travel agent or govt. that they could be arrested as pot stays in your body for more than a month. How bout those with prescriptions etc.? Do you really think these cops will listen to any reason or more likely; "you positive...have big problem...you pay or go to jail".....right?

If the Thais want to do this, then fine, but tourists should know it happens and goverments should issue warnings.

How many of the people grabbed with positive results payed money and were on their way? Still like the BIB? You guys are so full of it its coming out your ears

[Lifer]

I hope they do it more often and catch everyone (foreign and domestic) using illegal drugs and send them home or to jail. Only the users should object to these tests. Wish they would do the same with the drunks coming out of the bars and getting into cars and driving. Complainers don't have to stay here. One moment the posters complain they don't do enough here, and the next minute their compaining that Thais are trying to make their society better by actually enforcing the laws etc.

[SOTIRIOS]

...the innocent girls that were murdered were slandered....

....alcoholism.....and reading from the headlines daily....drug use......

...why are foreigners singled out.....would they do such a thing to Thais....what would the results be.....

(i think I read they did it at a bar, where it was suspected or known that drugs were sold....)

.......but to pick someone out of the street........and based on race alone.....seems.....

(......and what kind of tests ....what do they detect.....allergy medication......viagra...)

....and for immigration to be doing such a thing......seems incongruous....

(...foreigners are blamed for dying, when murdered.......then for 'partaking of the wares, as do the locals....)

.......pretending that all foreigners are so bad, is not right.....as the argument goes for the Thais as well.....

(...even though, by far, more crimes are committed against foreigners by Thais, than Vice Versa.....)

....misplaced and disproportionate morality and law enforcement......

[colinneil]

anybody thai or farang using drugs is a <deleted>, never done that never will

[terryp]

Ahh The hub of moralists...this must be why Thailand is in the state it is...MASSIVE YaBa YaIce problems in Thai Youth all must have been brought in by Europeans and not the PROTECTED rat runs into Thailand protected by some of Thailand finest and totally over seen by the very lot that round up foreigners on soi 3 for a pee test (clue GOV)...Amazing after decades of anti dr_g propaganda by the government that dr_g use is growing at a massive pace in Thailand ...LOL you could almost think is was planned that way.

Here's a clue; they want the youth messed up as they can control them better ...and as for the foreigners they want you to see who is in control of you while in this idiotic corrupt country (small c)

so many TV members dont have a clue as to what Thailand is all about & the hang em high are the funniest, must be time for another couple of thousand to be culled ehh!

Edited June 29, 2012 by terryp