DRUG-INFESTED COMMUNITY

Bang Kapi folk live in fear
Police doing little to take on dealers

Drug problems have long haunted a riverside community in Bang Kapi district
where people live in fear and police have done little to take on the
dealers.

Few people mill about near Wat Khlang (Chanwongsaram Temple) community pier
in Soi Lat Phrao 132 and the nearby toilet behind the temple between dusk
and dawn because it is the hangout for several teenage drug addicts.

Many syringes can be seen on the temple floor and on the roof.

Noppadol Ruampol, an ex-monk from Wat Khlang, said dozens of teenagers
gathered at the temple to use drugs, ranging from solvents and marijuana to
amphetamines and heroin, from 7 p.m. each night. However, monks and
villagers did nothing for fear that they would be hurt.

He said teenagers bought drugs from dealers living in the slum at Soi Lat
Phrao 134, known as a "no-go" area to outsiders.

The Wat Khlang community and the slum are separated from each other by
Khaisri Pramote Anusorn primary school and linked with a concrete path
running along Saen Saeb Canal.

Deputy abbot of Wat Khlang Phra Maha Somboon Chanthaso said he told drug
addicts to leave the temple area whenever he saw them and he frequently
warned temple boys not to take drugs.

Nanthaporn Nilpanich, headmaster of Khaisri Pramote Anusorn School, said
the school often told students to avoid getting involved with those from
the nearby slum and they did not.

None of the students were addicts. However, the school had fenced off its
land closest to the slum with a higher fence.

Wanchai Sriwichai, 30, from the Wat Khlang community, admitted he had once
been caught taking amphetamines by Lat Phrao police. He had bought the drug
from a major dealer from nearby Bang E slum.

Penkhae Rungsoi, owner of a grocery at Wat Khlang, said strangers
frequently extorted money from youngsters who caught boats at Wat Khlang
pier.

Rung Ruampol, a 20-year-old temple boy and Ramkhamhaeng University student,
said a donation box at the temple had been broken open and 500 baht taken
by someone last month. He believes the thief was a drug addict.

People in torn clothes frequently asked for items donated to the temple but
were later seen exchanging them for drugs at night in the temple compound,
he said.

Krissana Boonma, a student of Ban Bang Kapi School, who used Wat Khlang
pier every nihgt, said she often found many teenagers sitting in a group at
the temple. She was afraid that they might be drug addicts.

Malinee Boonma, 17, said she was very careful every time she used the pier
and tried to stay away from those she suspected of being drug addicts.

According to Wat Khlang community leader, Staff Sergeant Surapol
Samleethong, drugs were widely available in the community because Lat Phrao
police did little to take on the dealers and wrongly arrested innocent
people.

He claimed a police sergeant with the Lat Phrao police station's patrol
team arrested a boy on a charge of possessing amphetamines and asked the
boy's parents to pay 18,000 baht to get him released. In November, the same
thing happened with another boy who was released for 4,000 baht payment.

Many villagers saw the police officer drop amphetamine pills on the ground
before arresting the boy, said Sgt Surapol.

Lat Phrao police investigator chief Pol Lt-Col Udon Buapia said officers
knew that drugs were widely available in Wat Khlang community and that the
source was the nearby slum. However, they could not arrest the dealers
red-handed due to a lack of cooperation from those living in the community.

It was also a difficult place to make raids.

However, a planned crackdown was due to start at the end of last year and
the Narcotics Suppression Bureau had been asked to help with manpower and
drug testing equipment.