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Oct 25th, 2001 Bangkok Post

Get-tough campaign could be paying off

Yuwadee Tunyasiri

Strict law enforcement has cut the rate of drug addiction among students by half, says PM's Office Minister Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayuthaya.

A state-sponsored survey by Assumption University showed a 50% drop in the number of students using drugs, especially speed, as a result of successful suppression efforts, enforcement of the anti-money laundering law, and mandatory capital punishment for major drug offenders, said the minister supervising drug suppression.

Some 330 million baht worth of assets have been seized from 499 suspected drug dealers under the anti-money laundering law, he said.

The survey was conducted among 46,936 students nationwide from Prathom 6 to university level between July 31-Oct 11 this year.

According to the survey, 6.5% of the respondents said they had used or were still using drugs.

Of all the drug users, 58.5% said they were addicted to methamphetamines, 42.2% to marijuana, 33.6% to sleeping pills or hallucinogenic drugs, 16.6% to solvents, 11.3% to Ecstasy, 10.5% to the so-called ``love drug'', 8.7% to ketamine, 7.6% to heroin, 5.6% to opium, 4.9% to cocaine, and 4.9% to morphine.

However, 71.2% of methamphetamine users said they had already quit.

Twenty-five percent said they were still using drugs, 2.3% admitted to selling drugs and the rest said they were both users and pushers.

Also, 70% of marijuana users and 57% of users of sleeping pills or hallucinogenic drugs said they had already quit.

Most users said they turned to drugs out of curiosity. The other reasons given for their involvement with drugs were the need to imitate their peers, family problems, fraud, nearness of drug sources, want of money, and intimidation.

Gen Thammarak said the government had promised 20 million baht to help ethnic Wa people switch from the illicit drug business to lawful cultivation of cash crops. The money would go into a programme offering technical help.

The next step would be for representatives of the Rangoon and Bangkok governments and the Wa to discuss details of the project, Gen Thammarak said.

The Wa also wanted to trade in gems and farm produce with Thailand, the minister said.

A total of 44,517 people have joined the Second Army's programme to encourage drug users to quit, 2,939 of whom were drug dealers and 41,479 drug users, he said.

The general also attributed the success of the government's anti-drug campaign to the death penalty.

Nine convicted drug traffickers have been executed and there are another 60 on death row.