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Date: 28th August 2000, Bangkok Post

Police treatment scheme paying off

Wassayos Ngamkham

Twenty methamphetamine-addicted boys who underwent a police drug treatment programme have shown signs of improvement.

The boys, who are attending the "New Life Camp" programme between Aug 22-31, will be monitored by local and Youth and Children Welfare Division police for at least three months, said city police deputy commissioner Pol Maj-Gen Ukrit Patchimsawat.

The head of the city police Drugs Prevention and Suppression Centre said the boys, who are just completing the programme in Saraburi province, were heavily addicted to speed.

They were a constant burden on their parents and guardians, who asked the city police to launch the programme with a 300,000-baht budget from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board.

It began when community relations police visited various communities to look for children who might benefit. The 20 boys, aged 14-18, were subsequently taken to the camp in Saraburi.

Five were from Hua Mark, two from Thung Khru, two from Bang Khun Non, one from Ladprao, eight from Bang Na and two from the Youth and Children Welfare Division.

This programme is the second of its kind. The first was carried out three months ago when 20 boys were sent to Chon Buri for treatment.

Seventeen boys quit the drug and their overall behaviour improved.

Pol Col Amrung Jitpakdi, chief of the Youth and Children Welfare Division, said the first three days of the first programme were difficult because the boys had to be weaned off the drug and kept cursing the police.

The situation improved after the fourth day. At the end of the programme, most of the boys were confident they could stay off the drug.

As the second programme nears its end, one of the boys, 14-year-old Bird (not his real name), said he would quit speed.

"At first I sold methamphetamines only to make some money to buy a fishing rod. I could make 200 baht a day after selling only 10 tablets. I later used it and became addicted to it. I was forced to join the programme by a teacher," the Mathayom 3 student said.

Bird lives with his grandmother in Wat Taklam Community in Sukhumvit Soi 103, where drugs are rampant.

Beer, 17 (not his real name), from Sinthorn housing estate in Happy Land, said he was not sure if he could quit.

He said it would be easier if he was not influenced by his drug-using friends.

Beer, whose parents promised to move to a better area, took seven speed pills a day and quit school before joining the programme.

He said he began using the drug because his mother always shouted at him when he went outside to play.

Pol Sgt-Maj Narong Inna of Ladprao police station, Beer's supervisor, said he hoped the boy would go back to school and start a new life.