Drug reform still pending

Ayear and a month ago, the government promised radical reform of the anti-narcotics laws and the war on drugs. Since then, there has been no significant progress. Then-minister of justice Paiboon Koomchaya, who was leading reform efforts, has left the government. It seems an opportunity has been lost. All recent news and all government actions indicate that the Thai regime and every government in the region have decided to redouble crackdowns. Less than two weeks ago, the Philippines won specific support of all neighbours in its call for a drug-free Asean. The Asean summit in Manila gave tacit approval to President Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous campaign against petty drug dealers and abusers. Singapore has launched tough and aggressive new anti-drug policies.

Gen Paiboon must be disheartened. His rather obvious statement last year was that, “The world has lost the war on drugs”. No one in the cabinet disputed that. Yet from Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on down, the very idea of reform of drug laws sees no support and plenty of opposition.

Last week, a 400-man joint task force of soldiers, police and agents of the PM’s Office of Narcotics Control Board headed to notorious areas of eastern Bangkok for drug raids timed for sunrise. Under command of the Crime Suppression Division they hit 13 suspected drug locations. The results announced so far indicate they came up with 20 methamphetamine or ya ba pills at one house and two frightened meth addicts with hookah (baraku) smoking paraphernalia.

There are several messages from those raids, which commando chief Pol Col Tosak Sukwimol revealed to the media. The joint police-military team was operating on faulty or old intelligence — if any. The main targets of the most elite anti-narcotics unit continue to be minnows in the operation, at best. There is no longer any movement at any level of government or law enforcement for reformed drug laws that would bring about a sane policy.

Gen Paiboon’s “April shock” of last year came out of the blue. He proposed to take ya ba and less radical drugs such as marijuana and krathom off the list of severely prohibited substances. Amphetamine-type substances (ATS) would revert to their former status as prescription drugs. There was wide support for this policy, but obviously not inside the military regime or among the drug enforces such as Pol Col Tosak.

An amendment to the anti-narcotics law that went into effect in January is a preview of what could be reform, giving courts more leeway in deciding more “proportionate” punishment for ya ba possession and giving the accused a legal right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty. The measure was a one-shot bill without follow-up.

Those who support or condone the current, bloody campaign of President Duterte have short memories. Before Mr Duterte there was Thaksin Shinawatra and his police gunslingers. They killed an estimated 3,500 people and terrorised communities around the country. After too many innocent people died, Thaksin was compelled to stop, and the drug sales resumed as if nothing had even happened.

Gen Paiboon argued, as this newspaper has contended for years, that a drug policy based exclusively on enforcement will never be successful. Drugs are a societal problem, come in myriad forms, are abused by a wide range of people and exploited by rich, ruthless criminals and gangs. Law enforcement is a vital part of reducing harm from drugs, but cannot succeed without education and treatment.

Before any of that happens, there are two mandatory steps. The first is for the government to get behind reform, with an actual policy. Public education on the need for reform will bring widespread support. Then actual legal steps must discard the bad old policies and bring in the new laws. With the failure of the 40-year-old war on drugs, reform should be a primary agenda issue.

The main targets continue to be minnows.