Thai abbot arrested for treating drug addicts with ‘medicine’ laced with amphetamines
Thailand’s harsh anti-drug laws, where the possession of just a few methamphetamine pills is enough to land offenders a decade in jail, has also led to a booming prison population – the largest in Southeast Asia
An abbot at a Thai temple treating drug addicts has been arrested for selling patients traditional medicine laced with methamphetamine following an undercover sting operation, authorities said on Friday.
Thailand has a major methamphetamine addiction problem but government-run rehabilitation centres are woefully underfunded, so temples often step in, fuelled by the principle that good deeds build karma.
However, they are not regulated and often use controversial methods – one monk-led centre encourages patients to vomit every day by drinking a secret tincture of herbs.
Investigators said they sent an undercover officer into Khao Sripermsawang temple in central Nakhon Nayok province to pose as a drug addict after receiving tip-offs from former patients.
The small vials of medicine, sold as an addiction cure, cost 100 baht (US$3) each and drug users were charged 500 baht to enter the rehab programme.
We checked and found that the traditional medicine was mixed with methamphetamine
“We checked and found that the traditional medicine was mixed with methamphetamine,” said Sitthisak Watjanarat, a senior official at Thailand’s Office of Narcotics Control Board.