Is the anti-drug policy effective?
My eyes fell on a recent news item (ThaiPBS, September 8, 2014):
250 soldiers, police, narcotics and city authorities with sniffer dogs raided 18 residential areas near Wat Pak Nam Pasicharoen in Bangkok and rounded up 66 drug addicts. The simultaneous robberies began at daybreak according to the policy of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to send addicts to rehabilitation centers and then return them to the community.
Authorities knocked on the doors of suspected 'target' (?) houses and did urine tests for drug use on the spot. A total of 66 people, including three women, tested positive. They were detained to later be sent to rehabilitation centers for treatment….”
That was the reason for me to breathe new life into an article I wrote last year. When I talk about drugs (addiction) I mean hard drugs such as cocaine, opiates and amphetamines and not alcohol, nicotine or cannabis, unless stated otherwise.
There are lies, blatant lies and statistics.
Statistics are like bikinis. They draw your attention but hide the essence.
In the Thai media you are thrown to death with serious warnings about the increasing drug use for years. Every few days there is a picture in the newspaper of a table with bags of millions of pills. Men and a few women sit with bowed heads behind the table and behind them are a number of proud police officers who say that the suspects have confessed.
Thailand is on the brink of collapse, experts say, and the population echoes that. Every Thai is convinced that Thailand is struggling with a serious drug epidemic. Army Commander Prayuth called the drug situation a "national security" problem, always an argument for being able to act harshly and indiscriminately.
The 'War on Drugs' that Thaksin started in 2003 and cost more than 2500 deaths, of which an unknown proportion of innocents, is still fresh in the memory. Thaksin stated that drug dealers and users are inhumane where pity has no place, a view supported by the population.
I always find such a hysterical state suspicious and set to work to find out more about the scope and approach of the drug problem. Despite the above quotes, I think that statistics say more than anecdotes, parrots and other wild stories.
The magnitude of the drug problem in Thailand
Most studies and opinions about the magnitude of Thailand's drug problem are based on numbers convictions because of drug use, production, trafficking and possession of drugs, and I will show later why that is very distorted in the Thai situation. I found only one good comprehensive study of the magnitude of global drug use from 2007 by the United Nations. See table below.
Table 1 Percentage of people aged 15 to 65 who used the drug mentioned once or more in the past year
| USA | Thailand | The Netherlands | |
| cannabis | 14.1 | 1.2 | 7.0 |
| cocaine | 2.2 | 0.1 | 1.2 |
| estacy | 1.2 | 0.3 | 1.4 |
| amphetamine | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.4 |
| opiates | 0.6 | 0.1 | not mentioned |
Source: World Drugs Report (UNODC) 2012
What seems? In the United States, 20 percent of the population group mentioned used one of the above prohibited substances in the past year. In Thailand that percentage was 3 percent and in the Netherlands 10 percent.
Even if we assume that there was underreporting in Thailand and that the percentage of real addicts in Thailand is higher than elsewhere, we can still conclude that drug use in Thailand is not too bad compared to the other two countries. Interested parties worldwide can go through the figures interactively on the link below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/jul/02/drug-use-map-world
Drug use in youth
Among young people, however, we are a different picture, Thailand really stands out, four to five times as many compared to the Netherlands in terms of hard drugs. Please note: incidental use and real addiction are not distinguished in the tables below.
Drug use among young people in Thailand, all drugs together
| once upon | Topical | |
| 15-19 | 10 percent | 3.5 percent |
| 20-24 | 23 percent | 5.9 percent |
Source: Chai Podhista et all, Drinking, Smoking and Drug Use among Thai Youth, East-West Center, 2001
Drug use by young people (12-24 years) in the past 3 months in Thailand
| cannabis | 7 percent |
| hard drugs (amphetamine, cocaine and opiates) | 12 percent |
Source: ABAC Poll among 12 million young people, 2011 (I consider this ABAC Poll somewhat unreliable for various reasons)
Drug use among young people (12 to 19 years) in the Netherlands
| once upon | current (last month) | |
| cannabis | 17 percent | 7 percent |
| hard drugs (amphetamine, cocaine, opiates) | 3.5 percent | 1.5 percent |
Source: Ministry of Health
Drug use and addiction
Not all drug use is addiction, if we define addiction as substance use in such a way that it leads to personal, social and financial problems. In Thailand, every user is classified as an addict.
In 2002, just before the start of Thaksin's 'War on Drugs', according to the Ministry of Health, there were 3 million addicts in Thailand. Recently, estimates range from 1 to 1,5 million 'addicts', that is, users. This corresponds to the numbers in Table 1.
Perhaps between 15 and 20 percent of those are real addicts, between 150.000 and 200.000 people, 1 in 300 to 400 people. In the United States, 1 in 100 to 200 people are addicted and in the Netherlands 1 in 1.500. The vast majority of "addicts" in Thailand are essentially "occasional" users.
The 'Rehabilitation Centers' in Thailand
The 2002 Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act states that drug users should be treated as patients, not criminals. As with much Thai law, the practice is different: drug users and addicts are treated as criminals (I'm not talking about manufacturing and trafficking).
If you are caught using it, you can opt for voluntary treatment. If you don't, you will receive mandatory treatment, decided with a hammer blow in a court. Orwellian.
There are some very expensive private drug rehabilitation clinics (such as 'The Cabin' in Chiang Mai). But the 'ordinary' drug user goes to a 'rehabilitation facility'. In 2008, there were 84 compulsory treatment centers, let's call them camps, the vast majority of which were run by the military (31 Army, 12 Air Force and 4 Navy).
Between 100 and 400 people per camp. Depending on the assessment of the seriousness of the abuse, they stay there for between 1 and 6 weeks. About 200.000 people pass through these camps every year and the number is still increasing. Many spend some time in prison before being sent to a camp.
The vast majority of these individuals are not addicts but occasional users. A single pill taken at the wrong time can land you in such a camp. There is hardly any treatment in those camps. There is a military regime similar to hazing or recruit time. The 'treatment' consists mainly of humiliation, physical labor and military discipline. There is hardly any aftercare. The consequences can be guessed.
Drugs and legal system in Thailand
Why then the scaremongering about drugs in Thailand? I think this has to do with the special way the legal system deals with drugs. Let me point by point the specific for Thailand.
1 In Thailand it is too personal use of drugs is punishable (though less so) and not just the production, trafficking and possession. If you are caught with a stick or some remnants of amphetamines in your pee, you are punishable by law and that is quite unique in the world.
The table below shows, for example, that half of all court cases in ya baa is about use only. For opiates, only 10 percent of court cases are about use alone and 20 percent for cannabis.
Number of drug lawsuits in 2007
| production | trade | possess | use | |
| cannabis | 456 | 1.283 | 7.826 | 1.875 |
| ya baa | 31 | 31.251 | 19.343 | 36.352 |
Source: ONCB (Office of the Narcotics Control Board), Thailand 2007
2 The police have extraordinary powers in the detection of drugs. A well-founded suspicion is not necessary in the event of an arrest, search, arrest and house search. Planting drugs for an arrest is not a rarity. Threats and violence to force a confession are common.
3 Possession of even smaller amounts of drugs (say 10 pills of amphetamine or 20 grams of cannabis) is always considered for dealing (high penalty, sometimes death penalty) and is almost never considered for personal use only (low penalty).
4 Penalties for drug offenses are extremely high. Nearly 60 percent of all 250.000 prisoners are incarcerated for drug crimes.
I have two statements
1 The drug addiction problem in Thailand is less serious than is generally assumed. Occasional use is confused with addiction.
2 The emphasis for anti-drug policy should not be on punishment and fines for users, but on more facilities for voluntary treatment of real addicts.
Tino Kuis
Sources:
Compulsory Drug Treatment in Thailand, Richard Pearshouse, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 2009.
I think you are missing the most important thing! The biggest problem for Thailand is that it is a transit country for distribution to America and Europe! And it is different in the Netherlands. There, 80% are in prison for trafficking or using drugs! And I think that drug use is very high, but that the actual figures are not really known. There is a lot of yaba used among young people, hard working ladies and truck drivers and taxi drivers, also a lot of young people from Bangkok and among students there is a very high use of cocaine for better performance.
In the Netherlands, just under 20 percent of detainees are imprisoned for violating the Opium Act. see:
http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/veiligheid-recht/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2000/2000-0575-wm.htm.
Property crime and violent crime come first and second, each at 40 percent.
In the Netherlands there are approximately 12.000 prisoners, in Thailand 250.000 (60 percent due to drug crimes, often only incidental use), so 4 times as many in relative terms.
2800 Dutch people are imprisoned abroad, 80 percent for drug crimes.
Your link is about 1999.
Other than that, I can't get your percentages out of that table.
1999 I estimate from the table:
violent crime +/- 30%
property crimes +/- 27%
opium law +/- 17%
other +/- 26%
Since the penalties for USING drugs in Thailand (from the age of 18) are ridiculously high (2 years if you have been in contact with the police before and otherwise 1 year), the often young users are in prison for a long time.
The young people simply have the idea that nothing can ever happen to them.
So that causes a high percentage of drug-related prison occupancy.
If drug users in the Netherlands also ended up in prison, the percentage in the Netherlands would probably be higher than in Thailand.
The problem with statistics is that they truthfully belong in the line of little lies, big lies and statistics.
I cannot personally verify the figures in Thailand and the United States. The figures of 10% of the Dutch population, who would use drugs, are nonsense. The percentage of smokers may be close. You can smell cannabis. The number of points of sale in the Netherlands is limited. Especially if you compare it with smoking materials. I don't know anyone in my area who is a user.
These kinds of statistics are created to further the own ends of the body that publishes them. It is usually forgotten to mention how the research took place. Most of the time, the people they quote forget to even basicly check the numbers.
It is impossible to base any form of policy on such figures. In that sense, the author of this article is right. It is impossible for him and us to check how many drug users there are and how many of them are systematically dealt with by the police. The police publish these kinds of actions mainly to get people to stop or to buy toys (= equipment).
Dear Mr. Lutein,
You pretend that you can check the figures for the Netherlands personally, based on the number of people in your environment who use them, and then qualify the figures as 'nonsense'.
The great thing about statistics is that they transcend the perception of any individual and as such are suitable for shaping and evaluating policy.
With graphs, it is necessary to define very precisely what is being measured.
If you were to make a comparison between the percentages of drug-related prisoners in Thailand and the Netherlands, you would completely mislead people with those figures, if you did not tell them that the use of drugs is punishable in Thailand and not in the Netherlands.
Unlike many of you, I live in the Netherlands. I actively participate in various clubs. I regularly sit on the tram and read the newspaper. The statement that 10% of the Dutch use drugs is, in my opinion, based on nothing. That would mean that if you are on the tram to the station, 10% of those present should be drug users. There's nothing to indicate that. I don't know anyone around me who uses drugs. No doubt it matters that I don't use it myself. As a result, I meet people who do use less easily.
Ruud's remark that it matters quite a bit whether admitting drug use leads to 25 years in prison or shrugging the shoulders has rather drastic effects on the number of people who admit to being a user. That makes statistics in the Netherlands and Thailand incomparable.
I personally think that the percentage of users in the Netherlands is a fraction of the number mentioned in the statistics presented.
It is/was a good/bad habit all over the world to denounce the Dutch drug policy. It is now and then reluctantly admitted in other countries that things are not going so badly in the Netherlands. There are signals from America that they are considering copying parts of Dutch policy.
Thailand is of course free, in addition to production and trade, to tackle not only addiction, but also use through punishment and fine. In that case, 'confusing' use with addiction does not lead to policy-related undesirable results.
Assuming that the figures are correct, and that the addiction problem is less serious than is generally assumed, and that use is substantially less than in the US and the Netherlands, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the current anti-drug policy apparently works fine .
The fact that, in addition to punishment and fines for users, there should be more facilities for voluntary treatment of real addicts would be a socio-political choice that I don't think Thailand is ready for yet.
The point is that Thailand does not abide by its own laws. See above, the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 2002, which states that addicts and users should be treated as patients, not criminals.
It is impossible to determine exactly how big the drug problem is in Thailand. It is big but not as big as is often said and certainly not less than in the US or the Netherlands but not much bigger either.
And if, as you say, the anti-drug policy apparently works so well, how do you explain the many prisoners and the many who have to go through a camp?
I wonder how the 53-year-old Dutchman van Laarhoven will get away with this.
Multimillionaire dealing in drugs and money laundering.
First a trial in Thailand and then sent back to the Netherlands after in
seizure of goods worth 50 million baht.
Sincerely,
Lodewijk
I don't think it's wise (and Tino's tables show that) to talk about THE drug problem in Thailand. There are different types of drugs and the problem of use, addiction and trafficking/transport are not the same. If I have to believe the tables, for example, the amphetamine problem in Thailand is many times greater than in the Netherlands.
In addition, there is simply no reliable data (because it concerns illegal or partly illegal matters, especially when comparisons are made with other countries) and many of the data presented by Tino are outdated. Not really an ideal situation to draw conclusions. A discussion about Tino's two propositions can then also degenerate into a yes-no. There's nothing the writer can do about that.
In order to judge the effectiveness of an anti-drug policy, you first need to know why different Thais use different types of drugs. There can sometimes be a big difference in the reasons why people use cocaine (or trade in it, or transport it) or amphetamine. To lump everything together is a misunderstanding of the differences and the details. The same applies to the penalties. And you have to do research to evaluate the policy in a time series with changes in prosecution policy as benchmarks.
I also don't think it's appropriate to make negative comments about the punishment of using or dealing in drugs in this country. Thailand is an independent country and decides for itself, based on its own insights and values and norms, which things it wants to make punishable and to what extent. Every foreigner is warned about the punishment of drug use in this country and it is everyone's responsibility to act accordingly. How would we like it if a Thai expat living in the Netherlands – after being ticketed for speeding 50 kilometers on the highway – writes that compared to the punishment for drug use, the fines for traffic violations in the Netherlands are draconian?
Would certainly have no problem with a Thai expat writing that traffic violations in the Netherlands compared to the punishment for drug use are draconian, just as an expat has an opinion about the punishment in Thailand with regard to drug policy or any other subject.
There are countries where a hand is cut off for a minor theft, there are countries where women who have been raped are anyway found guilty, so that the male perpetrators go free, the expats or in any capacity whatsoever are not allowed to have an opinion about it because a country is independent and can therefore determine, based on its own insights, norms and values, which matters it wants to criminalize and to what extent? 🙁
Agree that every foreigner is sufficiently warned about the punishment in Thailand and must therefore act responsibly, there are still foreigners who are unwise to deliberately take the risk of staying for years in a room with up to 30 persons or more on a bare floor without having the basic facilities, how stupid can one be!