In Thailand, A Traditional Belief Holds The Key

THREAT OF OSTRACISM RIDS A FARMING VILLAGE OF DRUG PROBLEMS

BAN PANG LAO, Thailand - This rice-farming village in the hills of northern
Thailand was being destroyed by drugs.

Children stole from family rice stores to buy methamphetamine - the drug of
choice most Thai addicts - and outsiders drove into town all night long to
buy the little orange pills from a few dozen villagers who had taken up
drug dealing full-time.

Then, backed up by angry residents and relatives, village elders threatened
the drug dealers and users with a terrifying fate for a Thai: If they died,
no one would attend their funerals, and no monk would say prayers for their
souls. The dealers and users soon went clean, and no one suffered ostracism.

"The thing villagers fear most is dying and not having anyone help with the
cremation," said Sumalee Wanarat, a former teacher who now works with Ban
Pang Lao's antidrug program.

Thai Buddhists believe the soul will be consigned to hell if funeral rites
are not performed property. A well-attended funeral usually an elaborate
affair of relatives and musicians - is one of the main requirements of a
proper cremation.

"We set up village rules and told them that if they were involved with
drugs, we would cut them off from the community completely," Sumalee said.

The last of the 53 known drug dealers in the village of 1,500 people gave
up the trade within months. Addicts were weaned from the habit.

Ban Pang Lao's success is touted as a model for Thais to come up with
indigenous ways to combat the country's drug epidemic, and government
officials brought foreign journalists to the village to show off its
achievement

Previously, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's administration had focused
on a bloody campaign to wipe out drug dealers, giving police wide latitude
to arrest suspects and freedom to shoot those who resisted.

Thailand's drug problem can be traced to neighboring Myanmar, where drug
traffickers, dominated by the former rebel United Wa State Army, operate
with impunity in border areas.

Granted virtual autonomy by Myanmar's military regime under a peace deal,
the Wa produce millions of methamphetamine pills in factories close to the
Thai border. The drugs are smuggled along jungle trails into Thailand.

Last year, Thai police seized a record 95.4 million methamphetamine
tablets, according to the Office of the Narcotics Control Bureau. The
Public Health Ministry estimates that three million of Thailand's 63
million people regularly abuse drugs.

In big cities, including the capital, Bangkok, 420 miles south of Ban Pang
Lao, drug dealers can blend in among street urchins and vendors.

Supat Vintavud, a rice farmer was the first person to bring
methamphetamine, known in Thailand as ya ba, or "crazy drug," to the
village in 1997.

Supat, 35, said hill tribesmen he worked with on odd jobs introduced him to
ya ba to give him the strength and endurance to drag large sacks full of
ginger.

For four years, he sold and used drugs. He could sell 200 pills a day and
earn $250, a hefty sum in an area where most farmers make the equivalent of
$100 to $200 a month.

Others soon took up the trade, and drug use spread in the village, fueling
petty theft to pay for the pills.