DSI summons hospital directors

Pol LtColonel Pongin Inkhao, a DSI official who is overseeing the case, said directors from the Central Udon Thani Hospital, Uttaradit’s Thong Saen Khan Hospital, Chiang Mai’s Doi Lor and Hot hospitals as well as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials have provided useful information and evidence. Next week, the DSI will summon those involved in the dispensing of medication, including doctors, pharmacists and other hospital staff, he added. 

Meanwhile, Surasing Wisarutrat, deputy chief of the Chiang Mai public health office, said yesterday that disciplinary probes at the Hot and Doi Lor hospitals were ongoing and that police information and evidence would be taken into consideration soon. 

He added that the four personnel believed to have been involved in the disappearance of pills would be posted at the Public Health Ministry indefinitely. Surasing said the probe panels had only summoned the four suspects a couple of times. The suspects include a hospital director, pharmacist and drugdispensing official from the Hot hospital as well as a pharmacist from the Doi Lor Hospital. He added that the probe results would not be released in the next month and that they had been given a sixmonth timeframe.

In related news, about 3.7 million Thais have admitted to using narcotics, with 2.9 million saying they had taken drugs in the past year, an Abac poll sounding out public opinion about the missing pseudoephedrinebased pills said yesterday.

Of those who had taken the drugs, a million came from the Northeast followed by about 700,000 people from the Central region, 500,000 from the North, about 300,000 from the South and more than 200,000 people from Bangkok. 

Of those who admitted to taking drugs in the past year, 993,986 were under the age of 24, while 1.9 million were aged between 25 and 44.

The survey covered 12,486 households in 17 provinces and was conducted from March 15 to April 18, Abac poll director Noppadol Kannikar said. It discovered that while 75.8 per cent of all respondents thought the missing tablets were used to make drugs, 24.2 per cent said the two were not related. 

Most respondents (65.7 per cent) said they believed the drugs were being used and trafficked in their neighbourhood, while 34.3 per cent said otherwise. When asked if they were satisfied by the government’s crackdown operations, 64.9 per cent said the authorities needed to improve, though 35.1 per cent said they were satisfied. 

Comparing the antidrugs policies under Thaksin Shinawatra to those of the current administration, 41.3 per cent said Thaksin’s policies were better, 32.9 per cent said Yingluck Shinawatra’s policies are better, while 25.8 per cent refused to comment. 

Meanwhile, Chiang Rai police chief Pol MajGeneral Surachet Thopunyanon yesterday announced three drug busts, in which 67,238 yaba tablets and 200 grams of crystal methamphetamine or ice were seized. 

Police cornered Phitsanu Pimoldamrongkiat, 35, just after he delivered a sack containing 66,000 yaba tablets to an undercover police officer’s pickup truck. He said he had been given Bt20,000 to deliver the yaba in Mae Sai district’s Huai Khrai Market, but had mistaken the customer’s vehicle for the police vehicle. 

The second bust saw former soldier Wirat Jantanet, 25, and nurse Dussadee Praditkul, 35, being arrested on a Chiang KhonBangkok bus with 1,238 yaba tablets hidden in their luggage. While Wirat confessed to the crime, Dussadee maintained her innocence.

In the third case, Thipwadi Thongprasom, 30; Anusak Nimnuan, 19; Somkid Tharasaksit, 20; and an 18yearold man were arrested along with 200 grams of ice. As part of a police sting operation, undercover police sold the drug to Thipwadi and Anusak, and arrested them later in Muang district before extending operations and nabbing the other two men in an apartment. Police also seized five mobile phones that were packed in bubble wrap to be reportedly thrown over a prison wall. 

In Ubon Ratchathani’s Muang district, police announced yesterday that after arresting drug suspect Surasith Chanhom they had found that the suspect and other members of his gang also stole motorbikes and exchanged them for yaba. Apparently one motorcycle can be exchanged for 600 yaba tablets. Five members of the gang, including a Laotian man, have been arrested so far.