Anti-Drug Operations: A National Priority of the Government

(09/09/2011)

The Government has cited anti-drug operations as a national priority and called on all provinces to attach greater importance to drug prevention and control, especially among young people. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra expressed her concern about the severity of narcotics problems, saying that she had assigned Deputy Prime Minister Police Captain Chalerm Ubamrung to take charge of the Government’s anti-drug drive. The Prime Minister pointed out that drug prevention and control would be included in the national agenda for all agencies to handle in a systematic manner. She vowed to respond to the royal advice of Her Majesty the Queen on anti-drugs operations. On the eve of Her Majesty’s birthday on August 11 this year, Her Majesty called on anti-narcotics authorities to step up suppression efforts and urged the Government to continue with a project called "Mother of the Land Fund" from the previous administration, which promoted an anti-drug campaign at the community level. In the Government’s policy statement delivered to the National Assembly, narcotics control was listed among urgent policies to be implemented in the first year of the Yingluck Shinawatra administration. The policy will be translated into action by adhering to the rule of law and seeking to crack down on and penalize producers, dealers, influential persons, and wrongdoers. The Government will also adhere to the principle that a drug addict is a patient who should receive treatment, so that he or she will return to be a productive member of society. It will have a systematic mechanism to monitor and provide assistance to victims. The Government will seriously step up anti-dug campaigns and cooperate with foreign countries in controlling and seizing narcotics drugs, chemicals, and materials used in the production of narcotic drugs smuggled into the country. The campaigns will be carried out in an integrated and effective manner. At the same time, the Government will prevent vulnerable groups and the general public from getting involved with narcotics drugs by harnessing all sectors of society to fight the drug menace. Minister of Social Development and Human Security Santi Promphat said that he had instructed officials to collect statistics and other relevant information to be used as guidelines for preventing drug addicts who have given up their addiction from returning to drug use and for rehabilitating them. Aware of the dangers of drugs, Thailand and its ASEAN partners have issued a statement declaring this region a drug-free zone by 2015, citing the menace of drugs as destroying lives and communities, undermining sustainable human development, and generating crime. Drugs affect all sectors of society in all countries; in particular, drug abuse affects the freedom and development of young people.