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

[Derifo]

I wonder what the government wants to do .....kick out the tourists from the country ? .

No. They're trying to tell the tourists that they're the reason the Nigerians are there dealing dope.

[hungryhippo]

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

I still think it's worse carrying around regardless of if you have to pay a fine. I'd rather keep it in a safe place then ruin it or have it stolen.

Edited June 29, 2012 by hungryhippo

[rinteln]

and ?

Why is the fact that they are foreigners an issue ? Doesnt matter who they are. The news is not exactly headline stuff anyway but surely this should read "33 randomly selected people" .

Thailand as usual keeping their reputation as being possibly one of the most racist countries in the world.

No <snip> the article said "33 randomly selected foreigners"

If they had taken a random sampling of Thais and foreigners this would have been more justifiable, but targeting just foreigners is unacceptable

Crobe

Cosidering almost 50% were positive why is it unacceptable?...good riddance to bad **** and take their dope with them!

His point is more of profiling. It is good that people who commit crimes are caught but to intentionally profile your targets beforehand and/or report it that way is what he is saying is unacceptable.

Profiling this way indicates to me that police are not doing their job on the principles of actually enforcing the law but instead targeting a certain group of people who are more likely to gain them success, more of it, better figures or more pay offs. Otherwise why is there need to target certain people. If your aim is simply to stop drug usage then it shouldnt matter who you stop.

Edited June 29, 2012 by rinteln

[filguy]

2 weeks ago, i almost got arrested. 5 min before I left the Filipino restaurant in Suk 71, around midnight. They raided, arrested my friends who forgot to bring their passport, brought to Chaengwattana and did drug test. They stayed there until 5AM.

[fxe1200]

WHY DONT THEY DO THIS IN KO PANGNANG ????

They do not make money on drugs in Bangkok, they are more in gambling

[hyperdimension]

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.

[rinteln]

2 weeks ago, i almost got arrested. 5 min before I left the Filipino restaurant in Suk 71, around midnight. They raided, arrested my friends who forgot to bring their passport, brought to Chaengwattana and did drug test. They stayed there until 5AM.

Out of interest did they also do a drug test there for the Thais in the restaurant or only the foreigners who were taken to the police station for having no passport ?

[filguy]

2 weeks ago, i almost got arrested. 5 min before I left the Filipino restaurant in Suk 71, around midnight. They raided, arrested my friends who forgot to bring their passport, brought to Chaengwattana and did drug test. They stayed there until 5AM.

Out of interest did they also do a drug test there for the Thais in the restaurant or only the foreigners who were taken to the police station for having no passport ?

There are Thais in the restaurant..They just took the foreigners without passport to Chaenwattana immigration and did the drug test there..

[tragickingdom]

Randomly selected on color, dress and behavior. welcome in amazing Thailand....

[Sayonarax]

Soi 3, who cares. Its known what class of people hide out around there, and i aint talking about the middle easterns either.

[rinteln]

2 weeks ago, i almost got arrested. 5 min before I left the Filipino restaurant in Suk 71, around midnight. They raided, arrested my friends who forgot to bring their passport, brought to Chaengwattana and did drug test. They stayed there until 5AM.

Out of interest did they also do a drug test there for the Thais in the restaurant or only the foreigners who were taken to the police station for having no passport ?

There are Thais in the restaurant..They just took the foreigners without passport to Chaenwattana immigration and did the drug test there..

So again the point is proven. If the police were working with the principle of upholding the law then everyone would be tested, possibly including the staff. Because after all every human is capable of taking the drugs and no one is exempt if they break this law.

I think once we live in Thailand for a while we seem to except this as normal practice. Can you imagine the uproar and anger if British police raided a nightclub and only took black people and tested them, or only Eastern European people, or even just non UK residents.

Again this is racism and keeps the reputation going that Thailand has a racist backbone. Probably more through ignorance but never the less still racism.

Edited June 29, 2012 by rinteln

[Arkady]

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.

[carra]

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.

[Deaw]

WHY DONT THEY DO THIS IN KO PANGNANG ????

I live on Phangan.....they DO have random drug testing, usually leading away from the "Jungle" parties at 4 or 5am, when they are guaranteed to have a high hit ratio, but oddly enough only for the Thai tattoo boys. Ice is becoming a problem here and they love catching the kids on Ice.....how they can pay the huge fines is beyond me, those guys are pretty poor.

The reason they don't randomly test falangs? Simple, the cops are all paid off here and they like tourism to line their pockets and know if they randomly tested the westerners word would get back to the UK, Israel and Canada, etc, and the place wouldn't be as popular.

[filguy]

2 weeks ago, i almost got arrested. 5 min before I left the Filipino restaurant in Suk 71, around midnight. They raided, arrested my friends who forgot to bring their passport, brought to Chaengwattana and did drug test. They stayed there until 5AM.

Out of interest did they also do a drug test there for the Thais in the restaurant or only the foreigners who were taken to the police station for having no passport ?

There are Thais in the restaurant..They just took the foreigners without passport to Chaenwattana immigration and did the drug test there..

So again the point is proven. If the police were working with the principle of upholding the law then everyone would be tested, possibly including the staff. Because after all every human is capable of taking the drugs and no one is exempt if they break this law.

I think once we live in Thailand for a while we seem to except this as normal practice. Can you imagine the uproar and anger if British police raided a nightclub and only took black people and tested them, or only Eastern European people, or even just non UK residents.

Again this is racism and keeps the reputation going that Thailand has a racist backbone. Probably more through ignorance but never the less still racism.

You're absolutely right, I hope my home country do this to Thais..Just to be fair with!

[MrMuddle]

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.

"If an immigration policeman sees a Thai robbing a 7/11 he wouldn't just ignore it because he is immigration police."

I wish I was as confident as you are, on that statement.

[atsiii]

50%? What drugs? Are they talking about that awful Ibuprofen they claim killed the Canadian girls in Phi Phi? Or perhaps Viagra? Are they considering alcohol a drug?

Or perhaps they just randomly checked people to whom they had recently sold drugs stolen drugs from the evidence room? I always figure when they have big media events of burning or destroying 1 Billion Bt of seized drugs, they are probably destroying sugar and oregano because all the good stuff was already taken for police resale. That's why destroying it is so good, because then you don't have to account for it and it can be sold.

Edited June 29, 2012 by atsiii

[Deaw]

I was on Khoa San road one night and saw a troop of coppers in riot gear head into the Lava club, there must have been 30 of 'em with clubs and helmets on, etc...... 5 minutes later all farangs came out, and I pulled over one Dutch guy who looked like he just escaped the electric chair. I asked him what happened and he says " The cops came in, told all the falangs to leave, and then started making every THAI person pee into a cup to check for drugs!"

so sometimes it happens in reverse, so as to not make a dent in the tourism numbers....... Thailand, the only country I know which discriminates against their own people and lets the westerners walk!

[rinteln]

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.

"If an immigration policeman sees a Thai robbing a 7/11 he wouldn't just ignore it because he is immigration police."

I wish I was as confident as you are, on that statement.

Good point, I might of slipped up there...lol

[Deaw]

50%? What drugs? Are they talking about that awful Ibuprofen they claim killed the Canadian girls in Phi Phi? Or perhaps Viagra? Are they considering alcohol a drug?

Alcohol SHOULD be classified as a drug!! The people who drink it to excess act like retards and start fights and basically become obnoxious and people you don't want to even be around.

And yet, a very harmless plant which makes people mellow and sleepy is considered a drug, all around the world and not just here; absurd.

*BTW.....if you smoke weed in your home country on wednesday, get on a plane and get asked to do a drug test on soi 3 on a friday or up to 30 days later, you WILL prove positive for marijuana even if you never touched it in The Kingdom! same fine, same possible deportation, same bullshit; even if the worst thing you did here was have a Sprite.

[LotusBoy]

Soi 3, who cares. Its known what class of people hide out around there, and i aint talking about the middle easterns either.

Just about to say that as well. I call it Soi "Little Harlem"

[Unkomoncents]

You're absolutely right, I hope my home country do this to Thais..Just to be fair with!

I wouldn't worry. Thais are hardly allowed in most other countries without visas, which, especially for developed Western countries, are quite difficult to obtain. Thais pay dearly for their shenanigans; they are also excellent at ignoring the real costs of their behavior.

[HerbalEd]

Half the people tested had drugs in their system, it seems they choose the right spot to test people. May the drug users be put outta the country never to return.

Does that include those drinking the drug alcohol? Esp. those farangs who are drunk in public?

[Hermeric]

People. A 'hit' rate of nearly 50% would suggest that this was hardly a "random" search. They knew where to look and who to look for.

Unless you all believe that a 50% hit rate is a fair representation of the number of foreigners taking drugs...

Personally I despise the "guilty until proven innocent" approach and would suggest that these tests were a rampant violation of human rights - but at the end of the day it's their country. That said, "if you want to get high, do it elsewhere" is not an unreasonable message...

50% hit? if beer is considered a mind altering substance, a drug, well 50 seems a rather low figure.

[pointoffew]

Seems way beyond their authority to me.

[Keesters]

I'm wondering on the legality of taking these tests. I mean can a Thai cop just walk up to anybody, Thai or Farang, who is sitting/walking in a public place and demand to take a drug test? Wouldn't there have to be some reason to suspect that the person is under the influence of drugs first, such as fighting.

If they really can then Thailand truly is a police state. Beware standing near an ATM lest some BIB arrests you for conspiracy to rob a bank.

[how241]

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

Did he carry a good photo-copy of his passport?

[filguy]

I'm wondering on the legality of taking these tests. I mean can a Thai cop just walk up to anybody, Thai or Farang, who is sitting/walking in a public place and demand to take a drug test? Wouldn't there have to be some reason to suspect that the person is under the influence of drugs first, such as fighting.

If they really can then Thailand truly is a police state. Beware standing near an ATM lest some BIB arrests you for conspiracy to rob a bank.

Or, they would knock on your door and conduct drug tests...this country is a repressive state!

They conduct these raids during Friday night or weekends where Embassy is close..no one will help you..you cant also bail out until monday..

[Deaw]

If they really can then Thailand truly is a police state.

No doubt about it.

I remember thinking that years ago when this all started {It may have been under Thaksin, but much more common in the past 3 or 4 years}.

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?

And again, I agree with the posters above decrying the use of alcohol in this country......drunk people are a nuisance and cause accidents and fights and they are plain annoying to be around or near; ever seen a person drink 2 buckets filled with alcohol and then get on a motorbike to drive home? I have! But they never seem to get pulled over and tested.......

[sydneyjed]

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.

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!!