Yaba leaving bitter taste as drug pushers target kids

The pills come in a pretty rainbow of colours - purple, pink, orange and green - and boast flavours such as chocolate and strawberry to mask the bitter concoction of drugs inside.

But far from being the confectionary it is designed to resemble, yaba - which translates to "crazy medicine" - is a mix of methamphetamine, better known as crystal meth, and caffeine that can leave users awake for days.

Long the drug of choice for adults in Thailand, yaba producers are now trying to sell it to children through Facebook, Thai authorities say.

"Yaba [producers] are trying to change their product to meet the demands [of] targeted groups," Viroj Verachai, of the Princess Mother National Institute on Drug Abuse Treatment, recently told the English-language daily The Nation.

"These flavours help the users take the drug more easily, but it could severely affect their [central] nervous systems."

Yaba tablets are small enough to fit into a straw and are generally swallowed, or crushed into powder and snorted, smoked or injected.