Segregation plan to tackle drugs

[Lite Beer]

Segregation plan to tackle drugs
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- Justice Minister Paiboon says new strategy to end drug dealing in prisons would lay emphasis on rehabilitation of inmates

SOME 140 Thai prisons that house 330,000 inmates, of whom 70 per cent are drug criminals, are infested with drug-dealing activities, Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya revealed in a recent interview. He vowed to fight the problem with a new inmate segregation approach and greater emphasis on rehabilitation and prevention.

Paiboon has assigned three youth institutions for offenders to serve as a model for drug rehabilitation. These would first segregate drug inmates into groups for different rehabilitation methods.

"It's a daunting task because we never segregated them for decades. Inmates should be grouped into drug abusers or those possessing drugs, while major dealers would be sent to the Khao Bin Maximum Security Prison in Ratchaburi province," he said.

About 80 per cent of last year's 340,000 drug cases involved abuse and drug possession, whilst 20 per cent were big cases. Further investigations showed that many of the suspects in the big cases were merely "drug workers", not the mastermind or financier. But these "workers" ended up facing prosecutions as a major dealer would, he said.

Thailand has about 50 major drug dealing networks, he added.

The drug workers were often those pushed into the trade due to social inequality, such as many women who delivered drugs to earn money to support their babies. They were prosecuted as major dealers due to the huge amount of narcotics they carried. These suspects were involved in 60,000 major drug busts, which account for 20 per cent of all drug cases, he said.

To solve inequality in prosecuting drug cases, the ministry was studying two key frameworks - whether imprisonment alone could solve the problem and whether it was right to segregate drug convicts based on the amount of drugs seized from them. It would lead to legal amendments, the draft of which should be ready by February, Paiboon said.

"United Nations and Asean conferences I attended recently suggested that the drug problem couldn't be solved solely by jailing people. There has to be rehabilitation and drug prevention in villages, communities and among youths," Paiboon said.

Thailand, in the 2015-16 fiscal year, would emphasise drug rehabilitation and prevention and also clearly assign tasks to agencies, he said, adding he was also focused on getting help from other countries in drug suppression.

Recently, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China discussed the matter and China was pushed to spearhead drug suppression - a strategy that could be a big help, he said.

To lessen inequality in the justice system, the National Council for Peace and Order is working on a three-pronged strategy:

Firstly, laws would be amended to curb inequality. The Justice Fund to assist poor people would be backed by the State Justice Fund Act while authorities would use arbitration to reduce the number of cases heading to court and would take up complaints from those who claimed to be scapegoats.

Secondly, justice system agencies were also brought together in a law and justice screening committee to follow up on the progress of cases that happened before and after the military takeover on May 22, 2014, for cases where the public had doubts about lack of progress.

Thirdly, state officials must help cut inequality by helping members of the public to file complaints over the slow pace of agencies, he said.

After the Royal Thai Police, the Interior Ministry, Office of the Attorney-General, and the PM's Office last month agreed to set up "community justice" to be attached to the Interior Ministry's complaint-gathering Dhamrongtham Centres nationwide.

The training of district chiefs and clerks would be completed in February so they can give information about the Justice Fund, arbitrate on disputes or enforce laws. They would work under a provincial-level structure headed by a provincial governor with a Justice Ministry official as secretary and the authority to approve up to Bt500,000 per case, he said.

This structure should be completed by April 1, he said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Segregation-plan-to-tackle-drugs-30252108.html

-- The Nation 2015-01-18

[noitom]

The Thais are planning to segregate, but not eliminate corruption. Leave it to the Thais.

[Toknarok]

20% incarcerated described as 'big cases', in other words mules caught with lots of drugs. I'll bet that not even 1% in prison are the real 'big dealers' in this filthy trade.

[robblok]

That is what you get when you put drug users in jail, dealers.. ok.. users.. most countries don't do that. The war on drugs is failing everywhere.

[Sviss Geez]

The Thais are planning to segregate, but not eliminate corruption. Leave it to the Thais.

Keep yourself up to date, elimination of corruption is on the agenda too. Leave it to some ThaiVisa members.

[Suradit69]

The Thais are planning to segregate, but not eliminate corruption. Leave it to the Thais.

That's a surprise. A Thai Visa poster mindlessly bashing Thais without any intelligent connection to the original post.

[greenchair]

This is a great start. I know dozens of people who used drugs from 16 to 30 years old . The police, doctors, parents could tell them not to til they were blue in the face. A couple died. Most eventually went through 2 or 3 treatments. Including 2 of my brothers. They and thousands of others now have families, jobs and do a lot of charity work. Perfectly normal functioning members of society. They are not criminals. Just lost their way a bit. Prison is not the answer.

Edited January 18, 2015 by greenchair

[h90]

That is what you get when you put drug users in jail, dealers.. ok.. users.. most countries don't do that. The war on drugs is failing everywhere.

No it is not failing. The connections between drug lords and politic is well known. And the war on drugs get rid of unwanted competition and keep the selling prices high.

If there would be a war on drugs they would take the money out of it, user/addicted get their fix from the pharmacy. Than 1 yabaa tablet would cost 1 Baht instead of 100 Baht and the mafia runs out of money.

Now the make billions or trillions and with that money you can buy many people in Thailand.

[robblok]

This is a great start. I know dozens of people who used drugs from 16 to 30 years old . The police, doctors, parents could tell them not to til they were blue in the face. A couple died. Most eventually went through 2 or 3 treatments. Including 2 of my brothers. They and thousands of others now have families, jobs and do a lot of charity work. Perfectly normal functioning members of society. They are not criminals. Just lost their way a bit. Prison is not the answer.

Same here.. most people I know used drugs recreational no treatment needed and all of them have normal jobs. Drug users are not criminals, however if a drug user drives a car and uses drug the full force of the law should be on them alcohol included.

But decriminalizing drugs will never happen here.. too much morality here and too much is being made by the drug lords selling the stuff.. if it were not illegal they would make less money.

[DaiHard]

To be honest this is beginning to sound like a sensible approach to a very difficult problem. Segregating dealers and users is a good start if only to stop the latter becoming the former on release - particularly as its very difficult to get meaningful employment after being in jail on drugs offences. Another step would be to segregate soft drug users from hard drug users, again to stop progression. Jailing khratom or cannabis users serves no purpose to society - especially as they have both been proved to assist in getting off the harder stuff and have been proved to have beneficial qualities.

I think the givernment should be praised for at least looking at different approaches instead of the mindless sneering of some people on this site.

[sanuk711]

That is what you get when you put drug users in jail, dealers.. ok.. users.. most countries don't do that. The war on drugs is failing everywhere.

War on drugs, seems to have brought more drugs.

War on terror, seems to have brought more terror.

Is there any chance we can we have a war on easy women?.............................

[Equalizer]

I totally agree with the concept that jailing drug USERS and letting them mix with the dealers is a recipe for disaster. This simply fuels the trade. I have always said that people who live their life with drugs involved in some way will eventually run out of luck. There are many categories,

The recreational user. (A person who takes something occasionally, mostly when socializing)

The Addict. (Self Explanatory)

The recreational seller and user. (A person who will sell a few drugs to finance his own drug needs)

Street Sellers. People who do not take drugs but push them for financial gain)

The dealers. Top of the chain supply.