Thai Government Bans Xanax

[Locationthailand]

I agree with the Thai government, as much as possible of these chemical shit products from Pfizer and similar companies must be banned. Chemicals in your body can never give you any benifit.

This sort of comment always baffles me - your body is made 100% out of "chemicals" - and even if you were to narrow it to "exogenous chemicals" then I would just have to wonder if you plan to never eat or drink anything.

Your body is not made of of synthetic chemicals. Therein lies the difference. Drugs of any description are usually a bandaid for the symptom rather than treat the causes. Drugs are usually modified natural substances and every man-made drug bar none, has toxic side effects. Can't see how anyone defends this shit (any drugs).

[uptheos]

Looking through a website about this drug Alprazolam, which Xanax is a trade name of, Drugs.com & Wikipedia.

What would happen if you had been prescribed it, for example UK or USA, then you enter the Kingdom with it and the doctors prescription? As it would be illegal here, so would the prescription be your get out of gaol card?

Just a thought/question.

If it's banned then it's illegal to enter the country with it, same as if you had a prescription for Percocet or Morphine.

I would think that you have to declare it and not go to jail in the first place.

IMO the banning of Xanax is ridiculous......I mean just how many date rapes are there for christies sake?!!

[Psych01]

@uptheos.

Thanks, thought as much. It will probably just end up like all the other laws here, enforced as and when it pleases. TIT. ;-)

Edited February 7, 2013 by Psych01

[RKASA]

They stopped over the counter sales - you can have a script or get it in Thailand from your Doc. over the counter shops must return the supplies - it is a controlled med not a banned one.

[Minnehaha]

Dammit!

This drug is particularly helpful when dealing with Thai bureaucracy - immigration, revenue dept., ampur offices

[Minnehaha]

They stopped over the counter sales - you can have a script or get it in Thailand from your Doc. over the counter shops must return the supplies - it is a controlled med not a banned one.

where can you get it over the counter?

[Psych01]

They stopped over the counter sales - you can have a script or get it in Thailand from your Doc. over the counter shops must return the supplies - it is a controlled med not a banned one.

It states in the header

Government bans Xanax, citing its use as a date rape drug

, from

The decree sets June 17 as the date on which all sale, manufacture and import of the drug will be banned.

[how241]

Stupid knee jerk reaction, what about valium and all the "zapams," will they be illegal too?

Maybe, their similar, in the same drug family....I don't really think that this drug is the date rape drug...

[trimesh]

I agree with the Thai government, as much as possible of these chemical shit products from Pfizer and similar companies must be banned. Chemicals in your body can never give you any benifit.

This sort of comment always baffles me - your body is made 100% out of "chemicals" - and even if you were to narrow it to "exogenous chemicals" then I would just have to wonder if you plan to never eat or drink anything.

Your body is not made of of synthetic chemicals. Therein lies the difference. Drugs of any description are usually a bandaid for the symptom rather than treat the causes. Drugs are usually modified natural substances and every man-made drug bar none, has toxic side effects. Can't see how anyone defends this shit (any drugs).

Actually, I wasn't "defending drugs" - just responding to the absurd claim that you would be better off with "no chemicals" in your body. No synthetic chemicals is more defensible, but it rather depends on what you mean by synthetic - does burning hydrogen in air produce synthetic water, does reacting hydrochloric acid with sodium hydroxide produce synthetic salt and is the ascorbic acid produced via bacterial fermentation synthetic Vitamin C. On a purely mechanistic basis the answer to all three is obviously yes; but in all three cases you could take the product and it would be impossible to distinguish between it and a pure sample of the "natural" product.

[charliebru]

recently ordered a weight loss supplement from the US (Rasberry Ketone) in a quantity that could be only for personal use. I have been notified that I need to pay 2500+ Baht for the Thai FDA to approve it. I have advised that I will not pay it so probably will never see it. Is there some new idiot bureaucrat in charge coming up with this crap? Anyone else having these kind of problems?

[Hans Sierhuis]

Well prices will go up now, but surely they will be sold under the counter. After all this is Thailand.

[mic6ard]

Oh great. Now I'll have to find something else to use....

All the good stuff are being made illegal, make absolutely no sense. Actifed and others of the same compound work wonders for allergies and sinus infection, no it's almost gone, now you'll have to visit the Dr, to get some. A real pain if you're using it regularly during the smog season.

[spidermike007]

I agree with the Thai government, as much as possible of these chemical shit products from Pfizer and similar companies must be banned. Chemicals in your body can never give you any benifit.

Thanks for your wisdom, and open mindedness. I actually know quite a few people who benefit tremendously from some of these drugs. I use them very little myself, but I am open minded enough to know that what relates to me, does not necessarily relate to humanity as a whole. Perhaps I could recommend some treatises, to help you open that mind of yours? I would benefit all of humanity, including your family, and those around you!

[mic6ard]

recently ordered a weight loss supplement from the US (Rasberry Ketone) in a quantity that could be only for personal use. I have been notified that I need to pay 2500+ Baht for the Thai FDA to approve it. I have advised that I will not pay it so probably will never see it. Is there some new idiot bureaucrat in charge coming up with this crap? Anyone else having these kind of problems?

you needed FDA approval for personal use??? <deleted>

[PchaiSamui]

These drugs are already banned, there was a recent shakedown in Samui with the appointment on the new Chief of Police and no pharmacy was selling them, for a few days !! Normal service resumed shortly after. They are only telling us what we already knew.

[mic6ard]

Ah ha, just read something on the article,

"Only STATE hospitals will be allow to prescribe them".

More money for the state's pocket I suppose. I mean living on the move can get expensive.

[spidermike007]

Fascinating stuff. I was told by my pharmacist, that Xanax was already illegal in Thailand. Not true? I love how the Thai govt. just jumps to conclusions. To call it knee jerk would be an understatement. More like a scientific decision being made by a large group of men and women, who rival a 7th grade junior high school class, when it comes to emotional, spiritual, and intellectual development. And these neophytes are running the country? Love how they outlaw stuff twice. In koh phangan they recently outlawed the carrying of handguns. How long has that already been illegal? 50 years or so?

[madgolfer]

I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks....it's great levels me out....a lot of people take it as s sleeping aid....take one with a couple of drinks it amplifies the effect.

You can get it over the counter with a prescription at reputable pharmacies....I get mine from a backstreet Pharmacy without a prescription...try 4 little paharmacies and one will sell it.

[uptheos]

These drugs are already banned, there was a recent shakedown in Samui with the appointment on the new Chief of Police and no pharmacy was selling them, for a few days !! Normal service resumed shortly after. They are only telling us what we already knew.

They are not 'banned' but require a prescription from a Dr. and are not sold openly..........but they are sold.

[spermwhale]

Idiots. These are the same people that banned the sale at pharmacies of over the counter pseudophedrine because corrupt hospital officials were procuring tons of the stuff to send to Myanmar for production of meth.

What about alcohol as the ultimate date rape drug? Let's also ban motorcycles because everyday 12 people die in BKK on a bike. Hey and let's ban roadside stalls that sell smog-tainted food as it will cause cancer (and surely does).

I would like to know how this decision went down. By committee? Was their a study? Even highly educated civil servants are idiots here with a complete lack of logical thinking.

[WyattEarp]

NOW what will all the Sukhmvit road vendors sell?

Roofies?

[Colabamumbai]

Next it will be valium, then tramadol.

[farangme]

What a stupid, ignorant ruling. Just because a few people misuse a drug, ban it. Just like the ephedrine cold meds. Guess now the congested and stressed out will have to suffer together. Yet alcohol, tobacco, etc are freely available. Add another item to the shopping list to bring back to TL.

[OzMick]

The Kiwis made a movie about abuse of this drug. It was called "Once Were Worriers"

[SOTIRIOS]

...oh....not Thai prostitutes drugging and robbing foreigners...

(...and this opens the door for another black market product....)

[rayw]

Yet more prohibition stupidity !!!!

Like one of the other poster here said why not then ban stones and all knives and anything else that can be used to harm folk. Prohibition is NEVER THE ANSWER.

You fight crime by better concentrated policing and see to it that those who do misuse drugs and knives and stones etc are brought to justice and made to pay heavily for their crime. That of course needs a police force dedicated to fighting the nasty real and organised crime and not just concentrating on making tea money and chasing up those harmless folk who simply in their belief of personal freedom refuse to follow pointless prohibition laws.

[WhizBang]

your body is made 100% out of "chemicals"

The first time I hear in my life, that my body is made 100% out of chemicals. Maybe you used chemo, than your body will be poisened with chemicals. But maybe better put this nonsens somewhere else.

I see you flunked basic chemistry.Another fact, we are made out of dead stars.

[Tatsujin]

Did ABAC do the study that came to this conclusion by any chance?

What a complete and utter load of <deleted>.

Edited February 7, 2013 by Tatsujin

[waxon]

I agree with the Thai government, as much as possible of these chemical shit products from Pfizer and similar companies must be banned. Chemicals in your body can never give you any benifit.

This sort of comment always baffles me - your body is made 100% out of "chemicals" - and even if you were to narrow it to "exogenous chemicals" then I would just have to wonder if you plan to never eat or drink anything.

Your body is not made of of synthetic chemicals. Therein lies the difference. Drugs of any description are usually a bandaid for the symptom rather than treat the causes. Drugs are usually modified natural substances and every man-made drug bar none, has toxic side effects. Can't see how anyone defends this shit (any drugs).

Are you saying that antibiotics and vaccines are bandaids?

[Tatsujin]

Next it will be valium, then tramadol.

I thought Valium was already banned.

Aspirin next ... then alcohol