THAI ABBOTS MAY SEND MONKS FOR DRUG TESTS

BANGKOK -- Several Buddhist temples in the Thai province of Nakhon Sawan
will begin testing their monks for drugs in the wake of a police crackdown
which netted 18 monks who allegedly were found to have drug traces in their
system, police said.

""A few temples have abbots which show interest'' in having their monks
take tests, Colonel Chalerm Suwanosok, district commander in Nakhon Sawan,
said.

Police will test the monks upon the abbots' requests, he said.

On Tuesday, police said that they had been invited to a Buddhist temple in
Nakhon Sawan to conduct surprise urine tests on the 40 residing monks.

The police found traces of drugs in the systems of 18 of the 40 monks and
urine samples of the 18 have been sent to a lab in the central city of
Phitsanulok for further testing, Colonel Chalerm said.

If the samples come up positive, the monks will be defrocked and put behind
bars, he added.

The surprise tests on the monks were part of a province-wide crackdown on
methamphetamines, which have been flooding into Thailand from Myanmar in
record numbers this year.

Besides monks, police have conducted tests on school teachers, children and
even other policemen.

The Thai army has predicted that more than 600 million methamphetamine
tablets will be trafficked into Thailand from Myanmar this year.