Thailand regional centre for drug dealing, ONCB admits
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Thailand has been the regional trade and distribution centre for narcotics, with heroin and marijuana mostly smuggled out and methamphetamines dominating the local market, Permpong Chaovalit, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board,
Ingredients for methamphetamines were produced in China and India and smuggled through Myanmar before being distributed throughout Thailand, he said. To disrupt this process, the ONCB is watching Hmong couriers with a history of drug dealing. Hmong communities with residents with such a history will be registered with the military and ONCB, he said.
The ONCB is also monitoring a group of Thai workers based in Israel for the suspected sale of amphetamines to fellow Thai labourers. Coordination is under way with the Foreign Ministry to tackle this practice and workers with a history linked to drugs will be barred from travelling or working abroad in the near future, Permpong said.
Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya later conceded these facts, saying this news would be the beginning of solving the problem as whole, as previous anti-narcotics policy focused on putting traders, dealers and users in jail. He said the new policy would emphasise tackling root causes.
