Drugs a rising problem in Thailand
The area under opium cultivation has risen 10 per cent to 1,075 rai, while the amount of narcotics smuggled into the country through the northern border has also risen, Kitti Limchaiki, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board said yesterday.
Kitti said the amount of methamphetamines smuggled into the country had fallen but the amount of "ice", the chemical used for making methamphetamines, as well as that of heroin and marijuana, had gone up. He said the rise in drug use and smuggling was part of a global trend that had seen the amount of opium cultivated in Afghanistan double over the years. Kitti said the Taleban, the former regime fighting the US-backed government in Kabul, were using opium production as a source of income. He said African traffickers continued to use Thailand as a place to buy drugs and added that many used Thai women, including their own wives, to smuggle drugs out of the country.
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