THE OTHER TRAFFIC PROBLEM

Drugs Have Become Scarcer In Bangkok, But Suppression Alone Won't Take Them
Off The Streets

Completely wiping out drugs, as the prime minister has pledged, will remain
nearly impossible as long as the lucrative trade can make traffickers rich
almost overnight. Supplying the demand for drugs is more difficult since
the start of last year's drug wars, but it is still a big business in the
Bangkok metropolitan area.

A recent report on the status of drugs in Bangkok by the Office of the
Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) noted that, besides the massive population,
a number of other factors complicate the problems of suppressing drugs in
the capital. These include the vibrant entertainment industry, immigration
pressures and the accumulated problems of crime, poverty and environmental
stress.

An ONCB official said that methamphetamines are at the top of the list of
drugs abused and trafficked in Bangkok, as in the rest of the country. One
reason it is so hard to eradicate methamphetamines is that they can be
produced relatively easily and cheaply, although the process does give off
a very distinctive odour. Around 35 methamphetamine hydrochloride
production sites in Bangkok and the suburbs have been reported smashed
since 1987, out of 128 nationwide.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Police Commission reports that from February to
December last year, 6.2 million methamphetamine pills were seized in 284
separate cases involving 432 large-scale traffickers, and a total of 178.3
million baht in assets was impounded. There were a total of 21,380 large-
and small-scale cases involving 22,337 suspects in the city. The ONCB now
has a close surveillance alert on about 140 drug traffickers operating in
944 communities in 25 districts of the Bangkok metropolitan area.

The drug of choice seems to be methamphetamines in Bangkok communities, but
marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and other phychotropic substances are also
popular, especially in the entertainment places along New Petchaburi,
Sukhumvit and Rachada Pisek roads.

Marijuana use among locals is reportedly on the way down, although many
teenagers apparently try marijuana as their first drug. Foreign backpackers
can still find marijuana in the areas they stay , especially Khao San Road.
Reportedly it can be easily gotten at restaurants in the area, at marked up
prices.

Abuse of heroin is also reportedly higher in the Bangkok area than in any
other part of the country. Don Muang Airport is commonly used for
smuggling. In 2000, the ONCB reported 16 cases in which more than one
kilogramme of heroin was intercepted, with a total weight of 163.25 kgs. In
2001, 183 kgs. was seized. Nationwide, heroin interception was 384 kgs.,
474 kgs., 635 kgs. and 430 kgs. in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, respectively.

CITY-WIDE PROBLEM

According to a source with an ear to the city's drug culture, the market
price for methamphetamines is cheap in the Dusit district, at only 80 baht
a pill, compared to 450 baht a pill in Thon Buri district. Heroin goes for
anywhere from 200-1,500 baht for a small tube, depending on availability,
and is also much more expensive in Thon Buri district. As regards the
''club drugs'', the source said that ecstasy goes for about 700 baht a
pill, ketamine or ketava about 1,500 baht for a bottle and ice (pure
amphetamine) runs about 3,000 baht for a pack of unspecified size.

According to an ONCB survey in 2001 of 1,624 communities in 50 Bangkok
districts, drug problems were found in more than a thousand communities,
including 346 of a serious degree, 312 of a medium degree and 361 of a mild
degree. Only 232 were considered to have no problem. The most serious
problems of abuse and trafficking were found, in order of severity, in the
districts of Klong Toey, Bang Khunthien, Pasi Charoen, Yannawa, Wattana,
Saphan Sung and Huay Kwang.

The source said it was common for the ya ba gangs to use production sites
in the Bangkok area, but they were quite cautious, with very tight security
imposed while making the starter substance and the pills.

Talad Thai Market in Pathum Thani is a major trading area for
methamphetamines, said the ONCB report. The market is also a transit point
from rural areas, with the drug hidden among the agricultural produce. The
quantity of the deliveries is from tens to hundreds of bundles (a bundle
contains 200 pills), said the source.

Narcotics police and officials in late April raided the offices of two
brothers in Talad Thai Market and found about 35 handguns and firearms, as
well as cash and valuables worth millions of baht. An investigation is
underway as to how they came to have assets worth over 20 million baht when
it is known they first came to the market in 1995 as labourers.

Klong Toey has been the major distribution point for ya ba to other areas
of Bangkok and to the provinces. Previously Klong Toey was known as the
country's biggest wholesale heroin marketplace. When the demand for
methamphetamines went through the roof, many of the heroin traffickers in
Klong Toey switched their product. According to undercover drug agents,
amphetamine pills were much cheaper there than in other areas of Bangkok.
When the suppression efforts throughout the country began to dry up sources
in many areas of the country, the traffickers still came to Klong Toey,
especially from the northeastern provinces.

HIDDEN BUSINESS

But the drug campaign of the last year has made drug traffickers much less
numerous, less prosperous and less open, even in the Klong Toey area.
''It's been a year that there was no report of arrests for more than a
bundle of 200 pills at Klong Toey,'' said the ONCB source.

Drug pushing has become much more hidden. Klong Toey is still believed to
be a rendezvous place for buyers and sellers to meet and negotiate, but the
deliveries are not made there. They take place in nearby congested areas
such as department stores or business centres.

The traffickers do not now keep the drugs in the Klong Toey slum, but in
neighbouring districts or at rented houses on the outskirts of Bangkok, the
source said. From October last year until February, Tha Rua police (who
have jurisdiction in Klong Toey) seized only 15,623 pills of ya ba and
arrested 82 suspects.

Millions of pills confiscated recently were found to have been manufactured
long ago, probably before the government crack-down began. That may be true
also of the 9.3 million pills found left in a forest in Mae Sot district of
Tak in October last year.

The police officer admitted that the trade of ya ba was still going on, but
at a much lower level and only among those who have very long ties. They
don't deal with strangers any more.

He said that, along with suppression efforts, communities play an equally
crucial role in eradicating drugs. The joint effort between government
officers and teachers, shopkeepers and other concerned citizens in the
Klong Toey community recently is a good example of the cooperation needed.

However, overcoming the poverty and the living conditions in the Klong Toey
slum may be the biggest long-range test for the drug eradication campaign
in all of Bangkok.

The officer said that teenagers in Klong Toey would be a key indicator of
whether the drug problem is increased or decreased in the long run.

''Poverty is the root cause for people to find an escape through drugs or
take a risk to get rich overnight. If there is nothing but the drug
business to offer a way out for these kids, there's not much hope.

'' I think that the home, the temple, the school and society in general
have to help take teenagers, especially those in secondary school, into the
right way.''