BRISK DRUG TRADE ON THAI CAMPUS

BANGKOK -- Scores of students in a Thai tertiary institute are not only
dependent on methamphetamine pills -- with some students taking up to 30
pills a day to combat nervousness and pressure -- but they are also
peddling the drug on campus.

Students and staff members of the Rajabhat Institute Chankasem confirmed
that business in methamphetamine pills -- commonly known as speed pills --
on campus is brisk, barely two weeks after a minister alleged that a large
number of students were either drug abusers or dealers.

A third-year student from the institute's faculty of management science,
who interviewed at least three school addicts for a reporting class, told
the Bangkok Post that speed pills were widely used during exam periods.

According to her, interviewees said methamphetamines were popular among
male students and that they needed the pills to overcome nervousness and
pressure.

Some students have become so dependent on them that they now have to take
up to 30 pills a day, she said.

""More importantly, they are not only drug users any more but also dealers.
They buy the drugs from major dealers operating outside. But it is also not
uncommon to see outsiders delivering drugs to the college.

""They buy the pill for 50 baht (S$2.10) and sell it for 100 baht to their
friends,'' she said. ""They see the high income as worth the risk as they
can earn between 800-1,000 baht a day from school friends.''

Hiding drugs in tea pots or ceilings of toilets is among many methods being
employed by these students to deliver drugs to their customers who have to
pay them cash in advance.

Most of the respondents were found to have used the drugs out of curiosity.

She said the college had no clear policy to solve the problem. It did not
take any action other than handing the students a warning.