Khlong Toey, the slum district that grew beside Bangkok's port during its post-war expansion, has more than its fair share of social problems. Poverty, substandard housing and crime are daily hazards for the 135,000 residents who live cheek-by-jowl along its narrow, flood-prone lanes.
Five years ago, the area was overrun by drug dealers who openly hawked methamphetamine pills, known as ya ba, or crazy medicine. Thailand was in the grip of an epidemic that turned millions into habitual users, fed by illicit jungle labs across the border in Myanmar.
In 2003, then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra unleashed a 'war on drugs' that has proven to be among his most popular, and controversial, legacy. In the space of three months, about 2,500 people died in a wave of extrajudicial killings. Authorities claimed that drug traffickers were killing their own to avoid detection. Human rights groups accused Thaksin of encouraging the police to eliminate blacklisted suspects.
In Khlong Toey, as elsewhere in Thailand, the impact was quickly felt on the street. Footpath dealers vanished, prices soared and tens of thousands of addicts enrolled at government-run rehabilitation centres. By 2005, national seizures of methamphetamine pills were below 20 million, down from a peak of almost 100 million in 2002.
For Wanlop Hirikul, 52, a community leader and radio broadcaster, it was a period of hope. 'During the Thaksin era, that was a bad time for drug dealers,' he said.
But that era ended with the military's removal of Thaksin last year. Today, say community leaders, the dealers are back on the streets of Khlong Toey, taking advantage of Thailand's political distractions, inept interim leadership and police reluctance to be seen fighting dirty as investigators probe the 2003 crackdown. Rehab centres are seeing more methamphetamine addicts, mostly young people who steal to pay for pills that they smoke or swallow.