Pubdate: Tue, 16 Oct 2007
Source: Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2007
Contact:  http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/39

YOUTH TURNING TO POPPY CROPS

The twin revelations last week that opium growing has  increased 
again, not only in Burma but in Thailand,  must provide new impetus 
to government plans to fight  this scourge.

New Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratkalin grabbed  the issue 
instantly, claiming that it is necessary to  have martial law to 
fight the drug problem. As  questionable as that is, it is clear that 
authorities  have to step up and address this serious security  problem.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and  Crime, poppy 
cultivation in the Golden Triangle has  grown nearly 50% in just a 
year. The lion's share is in  the Shan State of Burma, but far too 
much -- 1,400 rai  -- is in Thailand, mostly in Chiang Mai, where 
opium  acreage has doubled in just two years. Authorities  blame this 
on teenage entrepreneurs, attracted by the  obscene profit possibilities.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, during his regular  Saturday TV 
appearance, said he believed the government  has enough time in 
office to do something about the  problem of illegal drugs. This 
seems a rather  backhanded way to approach such a serious threat. Any 
government has enough time to contribute in many ways  to the battle 
against the drug scourge. What the  country wanted to hear from Gen 
Surayud was his plans  about fighting illegal drugs during the next 
three  months. Instead, he issued a platitude about how he was  sure 
his newest deputy would come up with some  anti-drug plans.

That lack of dynamic leadership threw the ball at Gen  Sonthi. The 
country is undoubtedly hoping he can rise  to the occasion. He tried 
to talk a good introduction  last week, but the nation is highly 
sceptical about his  justification for keeping martial law in so many 
provinces. If drug trafficking and abuse is steadily  rising, that 
means Gen Sonthi's Council for National  Security has ignored or done 
a poor job of solving the  problem. Never before in Thai history have 
drug  traffickers created such a threat to the nation that  the only 
answer was martial law.

The keys to attacking the illegal drug problems have  not changed. In 
the first place, firm police pressure  is required to gather and act 
on information about  where and when drugs are being smuggled, with 
rapid and  strong suppression to apprehend the 
traffickers.  Community and religious leaders need and deserve 
the  utmost backing to encourage and conduct programmes  designed to 
discourage young people from drug peddling  and use through education 
and alternative activities.  At the top, the government must provide 
the necessary tools to organisations such as the 
Anti-Money  Laundering Organisation so they can pursue and 
attack  drug dealers where it hurts the most -- in their purses  and 
pocketbooks.

Gen Surayud must recognise that one of the keys to any  successful 
anti-drugs campaign is to use what his  Office of Narcotics Control 
Board has called the  holistic approach. Drug abusers, for example, 
are  victims of the trade, and deserve help rather 
than  incarceration in over-filled prisons. Going after  big-time 
drug dealers from the top down will bring far  more success in 
shutting the drugs trade than targetting small-time sellers. The 
former government's  campaign to wipe out street peddling has had 
limited  success exactly because it left the top traffickers  free to 
reorganise their gangs, and we are suffering  the results of that 
murderous ''war on drugs'' today.

The teenagers and other short-sighted opium cultivators  in the North 
can be best dealt with by using past  models of crop replacement. 
Opium may be profitable,  but other activities including farm crops 
can gain a  higher price, with no threat of prison time.  Authorities 
must act against opium growers now, rooting  up their crops if 
necessary. Last week's events in the  South showed the enormous 
security implications of drug  dealing. Poppy cultivation now is 
merely an open  invitation for organised crime to try to renew and 
dig its roots deeper in the North. The public will not  easily 
forgive a government that fails to meet its  responsibility to fight 
this menace.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart