SPEED FLOWING THROUGH LAOS

Illicit drugs from Thailand and Burma are crossing Lao borders instead,
said the man running Laos' anti-drugs effort.

``Our territory is being used to send illicit drugs to our neighbouring
countries,'' Soubanh Srithirath told the 4th Lao-Thai meeting on drugs held
in Luang Prabang.

The minister attached to the Lao President's Office, who chairs the Lao
National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision, said trafficking of
methamphetamines had increased rapidly as a result of crackdowns in
Thailand and Burma.

``Thousands of our students and workers are now addicted and several
thousands are in rehabilitation,'' Mr Suobanh said.

Millions of methamphetamine pills had been sent across the Lao border with
Thailand and the Mekong river in the last year.

The minister dismissed reports in Thai papers that the United Wa State
Army, regarded as the biggest source of illicit drugs in the Golden
Triangle, had moved its drug plants to Bo Kaeo province in Laos.

Gen Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayuthaya, who supervises Thailand's
anti-drugs efforts, said co-operation between countries in the Golden
Triangle had made life more difficult for drugs traffickers. ``They are
much in disarray and cannot move drugs as freely as they once did,'' he said.

Further co-operation was needed, however, to clamp down on recent drug
movements, he said.

The government would look at Laos' request that Thailand set up
detoxification and rehabilitation centres in Laos, he said.