Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2002
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2002 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact:  http://www.csmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/83
Author: Dan Murphy, Special to the CSM
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

A DRUG CRAZE SWEEPS THAILAND

Methamphetamines From Burma Continue To Flood Thailand Where Use Among All 
Ages Has Skyrocketed.

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Thai officials say last year was the worst year on 
record for the use of methamphetamine, a form of speed, called ya ba, or 
"crazy medicine" here. The Thai military is so alarmed that it has labeled 
the surge in users a threat to national security.

Almost all of the methamphetamine is produced in labs in Burma (Myanmar), 
where the drug lords who made the Golden Triangle synonymous with heroin 
have diversified into a product that's cheaper to produce, smuggle, and 
market than heroin, Thai police officials say.

Five years ago, just a trickle of methamphetamines were reaching Thailand. 
Today it's a torrent. About 70,000 Thais were convicted for 
methamphetamine-related offenses last year, up from 16,000 in 1997. Roughly 
90 percent of all drug cases last year involved methamphetamines, and 
narcotics-control officials estimate that 5 percent of the population uses 
the drug.

Hope amid an epidemic Still, drug experts such as Kanda Choaymeung find 
hope in the current situation. The psychologist and director of the 
Rajadamri drug treatment center here says Thailand is finally getting its 
arms around the problem. "This drug snuck up on us,'' she says. "We were so 
focused on treating heroin addiction, we weren't prepared when it hit us."

In the past few years, a government-backed television and radio blitz with 
movie and sports stars has slowly changed the drug's image from harmless to 
sinister. Thailand's police force has become more adept at catching users. 
And treatment centers have adapted to the special needs of their patients.

"People didn't think it was dangerous,'' says Chuanpit Choomwattana, a 
drug-policy expert at Thailand's Narcotics Control board. "With heroin, you 
can see the addiction, the damage to people almost right away. Ya ba is 
more subtle at the start.''

Mrs. Kanda, who has participated in the overhaul of Thai treatment centers, 
says statistics and anecdotal evidence show that the drug's spread seems to 
be slowing for the first time. "Use will soon plateau," she says. "There is 
a natural evolution of a drug epidemic, whether it's cocaine or heroin, and 
I think we're near the top."

Still, millions of poor, laboring Thais use ya ba. It can cost as little as 
$1 per pill, and the pills, which are usually eaten or ground up and 
smoked, give users a feeling of hyper alertness.

In the northern provinces, where proximity to Burma makes ya ba plentiful 
and cheap, alarming stories have surfaced of farmers paying seasonal 
laborers with ya ba. Students take it as a cheap replacement for the 
designer drug ecstasy at dance clubs.

A barrage from Burma Thai authorities estimate that 800 million pills ­ 13 
pills for every Thai citizen ­ are produced in Burma annually. The Thai 
police say production has grown increasingly sophisticated there, with some 
labs turning out 50 million pills a year.

"The numbers reflect an epidemic; this is our biggest drug-control 
problem,'' says Ms. Choomwattana.

In a new report on Thai drug use in 2001, the Thai Narcotics Control Board 
stressed the way the drug cuts through class distinctions and age groups: 
"Never before has any narcotic reached out to all levels of Thai society 
like methamphetamine does," the report stated.

"Tommy" knows how ya ba became Thailand's most widely abused drug. Sitting 
in a treatment center overlooking the boat traffic on a Bangkok canal, the 
soft-spoken young man with small hoop earrings expects "to be fighting 
cravings for the rest of my life."

When Tommy (not his real name)was 12, he was a classic underachiever. A 
bright, verbal kid with an English father and a Thai mother, he felt 
ignored by his busy parents and drifted into a dangerous group of friends 
that included a motorbike gang in his middle class Bangkok neighborhood. "I 
turned to my friends as a second family, for love and belonging," he says.

He first took methamphetamines out of curiosity, and at the start of his 
early teens he was taking two $3 pills a week.

"When I took it, it felt like all of my problems melted away," Tommy says.

He was soon taking 12 pills a day.

"I started out buying with my pocket money, but it became very expensive. I 
had to do something else," he says. "I started stealing in the end, car 
stereos, motorbikes, anything. I stole a diamond ring from my sister, money 
from my parents. My whole life was revolving around drugs."

He became a dealer, introducing other students to the drug. When Tommy was 
16, his parents sent him to an Australian drug-treatment center. He guesses 
that he's been through 10 different treatment courses. His latest relapse 
was a month ago, after a year of keeping himself clean.

"It's psychologically tiring, fighting against thinking about it all the 
time,'' he says. "I wake up in the morning with them on my mind: What color 
are they, how strong are they these days, how much do they cost? Ya ba has 
taken so much from me."

"With methamphetamines, the psychological component to the addiction is 
even stronger than with heroin,'' says Kanda. "It can be overpowering."

Finding a cure That's why early treatment methods, based on heroin 
treatment protocols, were thwarted. Specialists brought a user in, cleared 
the physical signs of the drug from their system, and taught them 
strategies to avoid relapsing.

But with ya ba, says Kanda, that almost always failed. They found that 
long-term ­ more than six months ­ psychological counseling followed by 
twice-weekly meetings at a 12-step program like Narcotics Anonymous was 
needed to help users with their problem.

A ya ba spread through Asia? Though law-enforcement officials say the cheap 
pills now being produced in Burma are mostly hitting the Thai market, that 
could change. Countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and India have 
reservoir populations of users among truck drivers and manual laborers, 
just as Thailand did at the start of its epidemic.

If production continues to increase, and use in Thailand has in fact 
plateaued, drug merchants may seek to carve out new markets, just as 
Burmese heroin production began to reach into European, Australian, and US 
markets after the Vietnam war.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom