DRUG TRADE FLOURISHES IN KLONG TOEI

Despite the government's ongoing war on the drugs, Klong Toei slum's
deep-rooted drug-abuse problem is far from being solved, police and
social workers say.

This year almost 600 drug addicts and dealers in the community had
been arrested, leaving more than 100 of their children without
parental custody, said Colonel Chatchai Rianmek, superintendent of
Bangkok's Tha Rua police station, which has jurisdiction over the
Klong Toei area.

Many of those children have become homeless and started sniffing glue,
according to Chatchai. Many have been lured into the drugs trade, he
said, adding that some rackets in Klong Toei have recruited children
to "run drugs" for them.

With another 3,000 community residents arrested last year alone for
drug-related offences, hundreds more children faced the same fate, the
policeman said.

Although Klong Toei's drug problem has improved since the government's
war on drugs, it was still far from over, Chatchai said.

"In many cases, after parents were put in jail for selling ya ba, and
their children took over the business from them," Chatchai said.

An anti-drug volunteers in the community said that some drug dealers
encouraged children as young as 8 to try glue-sniffing for free and,
when they became addicted, forced them to deliver drugs in exchange
for more glue.

Nitaya Prompochuenboon, a social worker in the Klong Toei community,
said that despite the government's efforts to suppress the drug trade,
they remained a major problem there.