When Western government remain silent ( one example the USA) and go further and enter into trade agreements with Malaysia-from anti-terrorism laws enabling dictatorships to arise, then what can you say. The so-called locomotives of democracy cant seem to come out of the cold war mind set. Haven’t we seen enough Pol Pots, Suharto,Marcos, Pinochet,inter alia. Support for bad governments promote bad policies and people do suffer.If a man on the street took money from a foreign government, then you may be charged with treason-what about a PM?
Talking of Third World Moe Eng, in 1963 I first visited Thailand. Many were pessimistic that Thailand would become the middle income country it is today. In 1967 I moved to Tanzania, East Africa. Many were pessimistic Mandela would ever win. In the 1980’s and 90’s I did volunteer work for an independent East Timor. Many of us were pessimistic East Timor would win. So when Professor Welsh strikes her extremely pessimistic note, I just don’t buy it. Especially as she fails to mention a word about Patani, and the unprecedented defeats of the absolutist Thai military there.
Such is Third World politics not necessarily confined to SEA. Depressing but true. The lack of cultural and ideological underpinning as in Europe and America that culminated in the great revolutions of the mid-17th C to mid-19th C.
This makes a good cautionary counterpoint to Nich’s sunny summarisation on the Burmese bandwagon which hopefully with not turn into the Terror tumbrils. Hope springs eternal. Optimism will not be overcome.
What a pity “bai kratom” is illegal. It seems exactly what the hysterical Boon needs, to calm down, from all his / her wild, crazed attacks against me, which are either erroneous, exagerated, distorted, or simply untrue.
Just before the PDRC protests the Yingluck government wanted to legalize the use of bai kratom, which would have been very wise. Bai kratom used by itself is a very mild drug, with no real ill side effects. Now nobody talks about the change of law anymore, unfortunately.
To continue a little further on the drug theme (for which I must apologise since it is tangential, at best, to Jim Taylor’s original post).
Nick, I agree with your view that amphetamine use prior to the early to mid 90s was something of ‘niche’ phenomenon confined primarily to truck/bus (and let’s not forget some) taxi drivers and labourers. Then, so to speak, all hell broke loose with the rise, and rise, of ‘yaa-baa’. This was also at a time when heroin, which had been widely available and relatively cheap through the 70s, 80s and into the 90s, started to become more scarce for whatever reasons. At this time a very compressed version of this drug became available in Thailand – but the bulk of this I believe was destined for the export market (and due to the highly condensed and, scarcely diluted, form of the narcotic there were many overdoses in western countries such as Australia during the mid to late 90s).
It’s interesting you mention ‘bai kratom’ (р╣Гр╕Ър╕Бр╕гр╕░р╕Чр╣Ир╕нр╕б). For other readers who may be unfamiliar with this: it is a stimulant from an evergreen tree indigenous to southern Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Commonly used among workers in the south (and elsewhere I guess), ‘kratom’ is a subtle, and rather gentle, natural substance which is chewed for its energy giving properties. It’s the complete antithesis to highly toxic chemical drugs such as ‘yaa-baa’ and ice, but it’s illegal just the same and there are regular busts of large caches of the leaf. If you do a net search you’ll find that it was made a prohibited substance (in the 30s I think) when opium was still legally sold in Thailand. The reason for this banning, apparently, was that it was regarded as having a palliative effect on addicts (reducing the harshness of withdrawal) and thus regarded by the powers that be as detrimental to state revenue derived from selling opiates to local addicts. This absurd law is still on the books with individuals being arrested (and gaoled?) for using or possessing this rather benign leaf.
One more recent unfortunate development with regard to ‘kratom’ is that it is now used as the ‘base’ for a sort of noxious ‘cocktail’ among some members of the younger generation which combines ‘kratom’ leaves, stimulant/’energy’ drinks (like ‘krathing daeng’ [Red Bull] or the more popular M 100/р╣Ар╕нр╣Зр╕бр╕гр╣Йр╕нр╕в as the yellow labelled bottles of M150 are called in Thai), and a particular type of cough medicine (plus who knows what else?).
Incidentally, there was an interesting clip of someone preparing this brew posted on the Bangkok Post website last year.
Amen to that. It has had a good mileage in contrast to Mao’s “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend” and more significantly to the brief few weeks of freedom that flourished during the 8888 Uprising. Different contexts but all born out of crisis.
With a nod from the puppet master smarter than he looks and certainly smarter than his predecessor the exit strategy seems on course even if it’s too early to call it the Burmese Spring yet. All parties, international players as well as the protagonist and the antagonist, will be congratulating themselves if hopefully no U turn happens over this particular freedom immensely important as the driving force. Onwards and upwards!
Of course i cannot remember the 70’s, i was in school during those years 😉
What i do remember though was that in the early 90’s amphetamines were still a bit of a niche drug, that became in the mid 90’s a mass phenomenon. That is when “ya maa” was renamed into “ya baa”, i believe by the Banharn government. But only after the ’97 crises the situation begun to collapse. For example, before the crisis people in my wife’s village smoked amphetamines only during the harvest season, and when that labor intensive time was over nobody used anymore.
I still remember when most hard labor people used “bai kratong” (stimulating leaves of a tree which are usually chewed, more common now again) instead of amphetamines, and then switched to amphetamines.
Great piece, Bridget. Important stuff to say. I have three questions-cum-thought-starters.
What is really new here? For Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, the last year has been business as usual. Thailand has got worse, but the trend began over a decade ago. In Indonesia and the Philippines, the last year could be judged mildly positive, but with the prospects dire. Jokowi’s democratic potential has been brought under control by the old guard. The coming Philippines poll seems likely to deliver a backlash against Aquino’s moderate moderation. That leaves Myanmar as the (unrealized) last hope. This is the old SEA story of the odd glimmer of light in the murk. We have been here before. In fact we have never left.
What is behind this? The economies, social structures, and political histories of these states are so different that you cannot mount a general argument there. Maybe we need to look at culture and ideology. In Europe-America, democracy is grounded in a widely accepted idea of the rights of man. Although Gandhi, Mao, and others have offered ideas of equal power, none has gained the same kind of traction on a regional scale. At the same time, authoritarian ideas inherited from ancient regimes (monarchy, elite rights, natural inequality) are readily taken up by new elites and new middle classes.
What is the role of the external environment? The elites of SEA look to the outside world for legitimation and reassurance. In Thailand, the “China model,” the combination of a liberal economy and authoritarian politics, has become very important for legitimating the new authoritarians. I suspect this is not as powerful elsewhere in SEA, because the attitude towards China is more conditional. But how important is the declining politico-moral authority of the US, especially as a result of the long-term Republican control of the legislature? And while interventions by the EU, especially in Thailand over Rohingyas and slave labor, have been heroic, will such action survive the massive political crisis unfolding in Europe as a result of the Syrian migration?
I’m an eternal optimist, but it’s becoming very difficult.
Also I think the various drug producing groups in Burma sensed a market that the DEA would be less interested in for a product that was less labour and area intensive.
Just a quickish note. Nick says the history of amphetamine use in Thailand began with the economic boom in the 90s, first used by truck drivers and day labourers. In fact it was well entrenched among these groups in the 70s (in their book ‘Merchants of Madness’ Bertil Lintner and Michael Black [Silkworm, 2009] point out that amphetamine pills had first appeared in Thailand in the 1950s [p.2]. The drug commonly taken by truck drivers back in the 70s was called – yaa maa р╕вр╕▓р╕бр╣Йр╕▓ (‘horse drug’, not to be confused with ‘horse’ an old term for heroin). It was a smallish white pill with a horse head imprinted on it. I’m not sure if it was smokeable like yaa-baa (р╕вр╕▓р╕Ър╣Йр╕▓), although I never heard of anyone doing that at the time. However, if you ingested a few tablets you could become quite seriously wired (I took it on two occasions). Like the current generation of red/orange uppers it was not particularly pleasant, that is unless you’re keen for a very long lasting, edgy, wide-eyed (р╕Хр╕▓р╣Бр╕Вр╣Зр╕З), tooth grinding (р╕Бр╕▒р╕Фр╕Яр╕▒р╕▒р╕Щ) experience followed by a very flat down. A great tragedy that such a nasty chemical concoction has become so widely used in Thailand over the last quarter of a century.
In addition to his Ph.D., Jim Taylor also kvells over his stint as paid adviser to Thailand’s Ministry of Interior (#36), suggesting to us that THAT one advisory role Thai experience gave him nearly an ‘insider’ knowledge of all the dirty tricks carried out by unnamed Thai elite(s) against one Police Colonel Thaksin Shinawatra (also Ph.D. btw), Thailand’s ex-Thai PM and currently fugitive on the run.
I mention above only because ‘insider’ Jim Taylor could share his unique inside knowledge at that murky rat-infested extortionate Thai ministry where-all-Thai- dirty-secrets-are-known. Jim could be particularly privy to the “Thai elites Who’s Who” engaged in the illicit Thai drug trade that ex-Thai PM Thaksin had ‘eliminated’ judicially or extra-judicially . . . and thus sparked this so-called politico-drug-war-of-sort-among-the-elites Chris Beale so vehemently avers is Wikileaks true!
Because my barber tells me Thaksin’s war-on-drugs killed some 2,500 Thai no-names — yes No Names!, but Jim Taylor could save Thaksin’s face by naming just a few Thai elites names that Thaksin had indeed ‘eliminated’, again judicially or extra-judicially who cares (right R.N. England?).
Thank you both Nick and Kaen Phet for your excellent and very informative replies to my questions. What a first rate web-site New Mandala is for vigorous debate, informed discussion, and high value knowledge. Worth every cent of Australian tax dollar spent on it. Thanks to all.
‘Myanmar citizens signaled their strong support for democratic change and better governance.’
Rubbish. Democracy has always failed to produce development, and development is what South East Asia wants.
This wasn’t about elite involvement in the drug trade, but about why the drug war has taken place, and the claim that the drug war was just a re-arrangement of the elites involved in the drug war, which is rubbish.
This wasn’t anymore the era of Police General Pao, etc. In the 90’s and early 2000’s the elites had other and much safer ways to make money than the drug business. Don’t forget – involvement in the drug business got people blacklisted by the US. While of course moneys went up, from a certain level though there is no direct connection to drugs anymore.
The largest king pins of the trade then were not members of the elites, but mid ranked soldiers in border areas who worked together with their Wa State counterparts, mid ranked police officers, mafia figures etc. And from there it went down the ranks. For a long period elites did not pay much attention to this, but that changed when society began to collapse.
The drug war itself was policy, an elite consensus, to get rid of the drugs. This was supported by the vast majority of the population.
The ‘war on drugs’ of the Thaksin era was, as Nick points out, ‘enormously popular’ among broad sections of the populace. Perhaps not that surprising given the pernicious nature of the primary drug in question, a down market version of smokable speed – ‘yaa-baa’ (р╕вр╕▓р╕Ър╣Йр╕▓) – a very uneuphoric high if ever there was one, and it’s more expensive close relative ‘ice’ (р╕вр╕▓р╣Др╕нр╕Лр╣Мр╣Г).
But since that time seizures have continued at a substantial level (according to numerous news reports in the Thai press) with little in the way of a ‘drought’ (though lots of fear) in urban and rural areas of central Thailand I am familiar with (and there are frequent arrests of users all over the country). As such with these wars there is no end, far fewer deaths certainly, but business continues apace and it seems that any real nuanced debate about the topic is highly unlikely any time soon.
In Thailand all illicit drugs, as the Thai term for them ‘yaa sep-tit’ (р╕вр╕▓р╣Ар╕кр╕Ър╕Хр╕┤р╕Ф) denotes, are regarded as addictive and the related laws very punitive. I would like to add that apart from the deaths of dealers, users, bystanders, and others, Thaksin’s ‘war on drugs’ put the virtual end to one of Thailand finest products the country’s once internationally renowned herb, mostly grown in Udorn, Sakon Nakon, and Nakon Phanom (see ‘Thai Stick’ by Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter, Columbia University Press, 2014). Of course there is still a burgeoning trade in marihuana nationally – almost invariably third-rate compressed Laotian (I believe) weed that often has red cotton thread around the bricks. In the west these days you’d be hard-pressed to give this rubbish away.
There is a simple explanation – the economic crash of ’97 and the desperation it brought to the people and the complete lack of policies by the Chuan 2 government towards these sectors of the population. This inactivity was also the main reason that Thaksin was elected in the first place. I remember very well the mood at the time under villagers – one of the main arguments was that they said: “We have to try something new, we tried all others and they never worked for us, so lets try and vote for Thaksin, it can’t be worse than what we had already”.
If you look at the history of amphetamine use in Thailand, then you can see that it began in the boom of the 90’s. First it was used to be able to work longer hours, by lorry drivers and day laborers, and then by students. This then changed with the crash, when they turned into an escape, and entire communal economies changed into drug economies.
By the early 2000’s the drug situation became intolerable. This wasn’t about an elite conspiracy, but simple a beginning collapse of large sectors of the society.
I think it a bit extreme to label all suggestions that elites were involved in the drug trade as “utter rubbish”. When the drug trade becomes a significant slice of the economy, there is a multiplier effect that spreads into the whole economy. Drug money is laundered and people look the other way. Some people are more fastidious about it than others, and this spectrum is bound to involve rich people on both sides of Thai politics. All should be investigated, but we know that honest inquiry into these or any other major criminal matters is impossible under the dictatorship. As we have seen with the Corruption Park saga, the outcome depends on how much influence one can exert with the crony structure.
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Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia
When Western government remain silent ( one example the USA) and go further and enter into trade agreements with Malaysia-from anti-terrorism laws enabling dictatorships to arise, then what can you say. The so-called locomotives of democracy cant seem to come out of the cold war mind set. Haven’t we seen enough Pol Pots, Suharto,Marcos, Pinochet,inter alia. Support for bad governments promote bad policies and people do suffer.If a man on the street took money from a foreign government, then you may be charged with treason-what about a PM?
Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia
Talking of Third World Moe Eng, in 1963 I first visited Thailand. Many were pessimistic that Thailand would become the middle income country it is today. In 1967 I moved to Tanzania, East Africa. Many were pessimistic Mandela would ever win. In the 1980’s and 90’s I did volunteer work for an independent East Timor. Many of us were pessimistic East Timor would win. So when Professor Welsh strikes her extremely pessimistic note, I just don’t buy it. Especially as she fails to mention a word about Patani, and the unprecedented defeats of the absolutist Thai military there.
Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia
Such is Third World politics not necessarily confined to SEA. Depressing but true. The lack of cultural and ideological underpinning as in Europe and America that culminated in the great revolutions of the mid-17th C to mid-19th C.
This makes a good cautionary counterpoint to Nich’s sunny summarisation on the Burmese bandwagon which hopefully with not turn into the Terror tumbrils. Hope springs eternal. Optimism will not be overcome.
A state of madness
What a pity “bai kratom” is illegal. It seems exactly what the hysterical Boon needs, to calm down, from all his / her wild, crazed attacks against me, which are either erroneous, exagerated, distorted, or simply untrue.
Dog v dog: Theatrics of the Thai interregnum
you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
A state of madness
Just before the PDRC protests the Yingluck government wanted to legalize the use of bai kratom, which would have been very wise. Bai kratom used by itself is a very mild drug, with no real ill side effects. Now nobody talks about the change of law anymore, unfortunately.
A state of madness
To continue a little further on the drug theme (for which I must apologise since it is tangential, at best, to Jim Taylor’s original post).
Nick, I agree with your view that amphetamine use prior to the early to mid 90s was something of ‘niche’ phenomenon confined primarily to truck/bus (and let’s not forget some) taxi drivers and labourers. Then, so to speak, all hell broke loose with the rise, and rise, of ‘yaa-baa’. This was also at a time when heroin, which had been widely available and relatively cheap through the 70s, 80s and into the 90s, started to become more scarce for whatever reasons. At this time a very compressed version of this drug became available in Thailand – but the bulk of this I believe was destined for the export market (and due to the highly condensed and, scarcely diluted, form of the narcotic there were many overdoses in western countries such as Australia during the mid to late 90s).
It’s interesting you mention ‘bai kratom’ (р╣Гр╕Ър╕Бр╕гр╕░р╕Чр╣Ир╕нр╕б). For other readers who may be unfamiliar with this: it is a stimulant from an evergreen tree indigenous to southern Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Commonly used among workers in the south (and elsewhere I guess), ‘kratom’ is a subtle, and rather gentle, natural substance which is chewed for its energy giving properties. It’s the complete antithesis to highly toxic chemical drugs such as ‘yaa-baa’ and ice, but it’s illegal just the same and there are regular busts of large caches of the leaf. If you do a net search you’ll find that it was made a prohibited substance (in the 30s I think) when opium was still legally sold in Thailand. The reason for this banning, apparently, was that it was regarded as having a palliative effect on addicts (reducing the harshness of withdrawal) and thus regarded by the powers that be as detrimental to state revenue derived from selling opiates to local addicts. This absurd law is still on the books with individuals being arrested (and gaoled?) for using or possessing this rather benign leaf.
One more recent unfortunate development with regard to ‘kratom’ is that it is now used as the ‘base’ for a sort of noxious ‘cocktail’ among some members of the younger generation which combines ‘kratom’ leaves, stimulant/’energy’ drinks (like ‘krathing daeng’ [Red Bull] or the more popular M 100/р╣Ар╕нр╣Зр╕бр╕гр╣Йр╕нр╕в as the yellow labelled bottles of M150 are called in Thai), and a particular type of cough medicine (plus who knows what else?).
Incidentally, there was an interesting clip of someone preparing this brew posted on the Bangkok Post website last year.
Freedom and independence
Amen to that. It has had a good mileage in contrast to Mao’s “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend” and more significantly to the brief few weeks of freedom that flourished during the 8888 Uprising. Different contexts but all born out of crisis.
With a nod from the puppet master smarter than he looks and certainly smarter than his predecessor the exit strategy seems on course even if it’s too early to call it the Burmese Spring yet. All parties, international players as well as the protagonist and the antagonist, will be congratulating themselves if hopefully no U turn happens over this particular freedom immensely important as the driving force. Onwards and upwards!
A state of madness
Of course i cannot remember the 70’s, i was in school during those years 😉
What i do remember though was that in the early 90’s amphetamines were still a bit of a niche drug, that became in the mid 90’s a mass phenomenon. That is when “ya maa” was renamed into “ya baa”, i believe by the Banharn government. But only after the ’97 crises the situation begun to collapse. For example, before the crisis people in my wife’s village smoked amphetamines only during the harvest season, and when that labor intensive time was over nobody used anymore.
I still remember when most hard labor people used “bai kratong” (stimulating leaves of a tree which are usually chewed, more common now again) instead of amphetamines, and then switched to amphetamines.
Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia
Great piece, Bridget. Important stuff to say. I have three questions-cum-thought-starters.
What is really new here? For Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, the last year has been business as usual. Thailand has got worse, but the trend began over a decade ago. In Indonesia and the Philippines, the last year could be judged mildly positive, but with the prospects dire. Jokowi’s democratic potential has been brought under control by the old guard. The coming Philippines poll seems likely to deliver a backlash against Aquino’s moderate moderation. That leaves Myanmar as the (unrealized) last hope. This is the old SEA story of the odd glimmer of light in the murk. We have been here before. In fact we have never left.
What is behind this? The economies, social structures, and political histories of these states are so different that you cannot mount a general argument there. Maybe we need to look at culture and ideology. In Europe-America, democracy is grounded in a widely accepted idea of the rights of man. Although Gandhi, Mao, and others have offered ideas of equal power, none has gained the same kind of traction on a regional scale. At the same time, authoritarian ideas inherited from ancient regimes (monarchy, elite rights, natural inequality) are readily taken up by new elites and new middle classes.
What is the role of the external environment? The elites of SEA look to the outside world for legitimation and reassurance. In Thailand, the “China model,” the combination of a liberal economy and authoritarian politics, has become very important for legitimating the new authoritarians. I suspect this is not as powerful elsewhere in SEA, because the attitude towards China is more conditional. But how important is the declining politico-moral authority of the US, especially as a result of the long-term Republican control of the legislature? And while interventions by the EU, especially in Thailand over Rohingyas and slave labor, have been heroic, will such action survive the massive political crisis unfolding in Europe as a result of the Syrian migration?
I’m an eternal optimist, but it’s becoming very difficult.
A state of madness
Also I think the various drug producing groups in Burma sensed a market that the DEA would be less interested in for a product that was less labour and area intensive.
A state of madness
Just a quickish note. Nick says the history of amphetamine use in Thailand began with the economic boom in the 90s, first used by truck drivers and day labourers. In fact it was well entrenched among these groups in the 70s (in their book ‘Merchants of Madness’ Bertil Lintner and Michael Black [Silkworm, 2009] point out that amphetamine pills had first appeared in Thailand in the 1950s [p.2]. The drug commonly taken by truck drivers back in the 70s was called – yaa maa р╕вр╕▓р╕бр╣Йр╕▓ (‘horse drug’, not to be confused with ‘horse’ an old term for heroin). It was a smallish white pill with a horse head imprinted on it. I’m not sure if it was smokeable like yaa-baa (р╕вр╕▓р╕Ър╣Йр╕▓), although I never heard of anyone doing that at the time. However, if you ingested a few tablets you could become quite seriously wired (I took it on two occasions). Like the current generation of red/orange uppers it was not particularly pleasant, that is unless you’re keen for a very long lasting, edgy, wide-eyed (р╕Хр╕▓р╣Бр╕Вр╣Зр╕З), tooth grinding (р╕Бр╕▒р╕Фр╕Яр╕▒р╕▒р╕Щ) experience followed by a very flat down. A great tragedy that such a nasty chemical concoction has become so widely used in Thailand over the last quarter of a century.
A state of madness
In addition to his Ph.D., Jim Taylor also kvells over his stint as paid adviser to Thailand’s Ministry of Interior (#36), suggesting to us that THAT one advisory role Thai experience gave him nearly an ‘insider’ knowledge of all the dirty tricks carried out by unnamed Thai elite(s) against one Police Colonel Thaksin Shinawatra (also Ph.D. btw), Thailand’s ex-Thai PM and currently fugitive on the run.
I mention above only because ‘insider’ Jim Taylor could share his unique inside knowledge at that murky rat-infested extortionate Thai ministry where-all-Thai- dirty-secrets-are-known. Jim could be particularly privy to the “Thai elites Who’s Who” engaged in the illicit Thai drug trade that ex-Thai PM Thaksin had ‘eliminated’ judicially or extra-judicially . . . and thus sparked this so-called politico-drug-war-of-sort-among-the-elites Chris Beale so vehemently avers is Wikileaks true!
Because my barber tells me Thaksin’s war-on-drugs killed some 2,500 Thai no-names — yes No Names!, but Jim Taylor could save Thaksin’s face by naming just a few Thai elites names that Thaksin had indeed ‘eliminated’, again judicially or extra-judicially who cares (right R.N. England?).
A state of madness
Thank you both Nick and Kaen Phet for your excellent and very informative replies to my questions. What a first rate web-site New Mandala is for vigorous debate, informed discussion, and high value knowledge. Worth every cent of Australian tax dollar spent on it. Thanks to all.
Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia
‘Myanmar citizens signaled their strong support for democratic change and better governance.’
Rubbish. Democracy has always failed to produce development, and development is what South East Asia wants.
Democratic contraction in Southeast Asia
This is grim but accurately tabulated account Bridget.
A state of madness
This wasn’t about elite involvement in the drug trade, but about why the drug war has taken place, and the claim that the drug war was just a re-arrangement of the elites involved in the drug war, which is rubbish.
This wasn’t anymore the era of Police General Pao, etc. In the 90’s and early 2000’s the elites had other and much safer ways to make money than the drug business. Don’t forget – involvement in the drug business got people blacklisted by the US. While of course moneys went up, from a certain level though there is no direct connection to drugs anymore.
The largest king pins of the trade then were not members of the elites, but mid ranked soldiers in border areas who worked together with their Wa State counterparts, mid ranked police officers, mafia figures etc. And from there it went down the ranks. For a long period elites did not pay much attention to this, but that changed when society began to collapse.
The drug war itself was policy, an elite consensus, to get rid of the drugs. This was supported by the vast majority of the population.
A state of madness
The ‘war on drugs’ of the Thaksin era was, as Nick points out, ‘enormously popular’ among broad sections of the populace. Perhaps not that surprising given the pernicious nature of the primary drug in question, a down market version of smokable speed – ‘yaa-baa’ (р╕вр╕▓р╕Ър╣Йр╕▓) – a very uneuphoric high if ever there was one, and it’s more expensive close relative ‘ice’ (р╕вр╕▓р╣Др╕нр╕Лр╣Мр╣Г).
But since that time seizures have continued at a substantial level (according to numerous news reports in the Thai press) with little in the way of a ‘drought’ (though lots of fear) in urban and rural areas of central Thailand I am familiar with (and there are frequent arrests of users all over the country). As such with these wars there is no end, far fewer deaths certainly, but business continues apace and it seems that any real nuanced debate about the topic is highly unlikely any time soon.
In Thailand all illicit drugs, as the Thai term for them ‘yaa sep-tit’ (р╕вр╕▓р╣Ар╕кр╕Ър╕Хр╕┤р╕Ф) denotes, are regarded as addictive and the related laws very punitive. I would like to add that apart from the deaths of dealers, users, bystanders, and others, Thaksin’s ‘war on drugs’ put the virtual end to one of Thailand finest products the country’s once internationally renowned herb, mostly grown in Udorn, Sakon Nakon, and Nakon Phanom (see ‘Thai Stick’ by Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter, Columbia University Press, 2014). Of course there is still a burgeoning trade in marihuana nationally – almost invariably third-rate compressed Laotian (I believe) weed that often has red cotton thread around the bricks. In the west these days you’d be hard-pressed to give this rubbish away.
A state of madness
There is a simple explanation – the economic crash of ’97 and the desperation it brought to the people and the complete lack of policies by the Chuan 2 government towards these sectors of the population. This inactivity was also the main reason that Thaksin was elected in the first place. I remember very well the mood at the time under villagers – one of the main arguments was that they said: “We have to try something new, we tried all others and they never worked for us, so lets try and vote for Thaksin, it can’t be worse than what we had already”.
If you look at the history of amphetamine use in Thailand, then you can see that it began in the boom of the 90’s. First it was used to be able to work longer hours, by lorry drivers and day laborers, and then by students. This then changed with the crash, when they turned into an escape, and entire communal economies changed into drug economies.
By the early 2000’s the drug situation became intolerable. This wasn’t about an elite conspiracy, but simple a beginning collapse of large sectors of the society.
A state of madness
I think it a bit extreme to label all suggestions that elites were involved in the drug trade as “utter rubbish”. When the drug trade becomes a significant slice of the economy, there is a multiplier effect that spreads into the whole economy. Drug money is laundered and people look the other way. Some people are more fastidious about it than others, and this spectrum is bound to involve rich people on both sides of Thai politics. All should be investigated, but we know that honest inquiry into these or any other major criminal matters is impossible under the dictatorship. As we have seen with the Corruption Park saga, the outcome depends on how much influence one can exert with the crony structure.