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Golden Triangle widens to Thai scho



Subject: Golden Triangle widens to Thai schools

Golden Triangle widens to Thai schools

By Bruce Cheesman, Bangkok

Thai Air force jets no longer make routine sweeps along the sensitive
Burmese border through fears of being shot down by the United Wa State
Army.

Intelligence reports reveal that South-East Asia's most powerful drug
cartel, with more than 20,000 troops, recently acquired SAM missiles.
Thai army patrols routinely clash with Wa troops along the border in a
bid to plug the drug pipeline from the notorious Golden Triangle to
Bangkok and then shipment to the US and Australia.

After years of paying lip service to narcotics enforcement, Thai drug
authorities are winning international praise for attempts to shut down
the supply pipeline.

The first admissions this year by Thailand of the widespread use of
amphetamines in schools and trendy night clubs frequented by wealthy
young Thais have led to new steel in drug enforcement. Thai authorities,
who once regarded narcotics use as the preserve of foreign backpackers,
concede that drug abuse by Thais is out of control.

Bangkok is regarded as the regional haven for designer drugs, with
cheaper imitations of new pills in the US on sale within weeks. Ecstasy,
cocaine-based crack, methamphetamine crystals (ice), methcathinone, Blue
Ice and LSD have all made inroads among the Thai Yuppy set.

Army commander-in-chief General Surayud Chulanont said in August that
more than 2 million Thai students are believed to be addicted to ya baa
amphetamines.

A survey by the Thailand Development Research Institute in 1993, the
most recent figures available, claimed there were 1.2 million drug
users. Of these, 71,666, or 6 per cent, were students.

More than 30,000 juveniles are in detention centres on drug charges.
There are more than 80,000 prisoners in Thai jails serving drug terms,
with more than half the 100,000 trials a year involving drugs.

Officers with the Office of the Narcotics Control Board say that most
amphetamine addicts are young people under 25. Amphetamine use is most
prevalent among teenagers between 15 to 19.

The drug problem is particularly alarming in schools, say education
officials. In one school in Klong Toey, a suburb of Bangkok, up to 5 per
cent of students are drug users or dealers.

Many of the small-time dealers are unemployed foreigners who subsidise
their stay in Thailand by selling drugs to juveniles. Areas such as
Sribampen and Ko Sarn Road are notorious as hangouts for foreign drug
pushers.

"There is no doubt the scale of the domestic drug problem has led to
Thailand taking a much tougher approach in narcotic enforcement. Many of
the drugs that come down from the Golden Triangle are used locally,"
said a diplomat based in Bangkok.

Australian police, concerned at the increase in amphetamines coming into
the country from Thailand, are working closely with their Thai
counterparts to break the supply chain. Canberra also funds United
Nations Drug Control Programs in Thailand.

The Wa, the successors of "retired" drug lord Khun Sa, supply 50 per
cent of the amphetamines manufactured in Burma.

Anti-narcotics agents say the Wa controls half of the estimated 1,700
tonnes of heroin produced in the Golden Triangle area of Burma around
one-quarter of the world's total production.

The US has a $2m bounty on the head of Wei Hsei-kang, a Wa battalion
commander, thought to be behind threats to kidnap US personnel venturing
into northern Thailand.