Revamp drug policy

re: Editorial: "Drug reform still pending" (2017, May 10)

Post Bag, The Bangkok Post.

Dear editor,

The efforts of former minister of justice Paiboon Koomchaya to radically reform Thailand's long failing drug laws were a chance for the current government to do something of value that would not only correct a policy that has for decades been proved an expensive abject failure, but which would have seriously hit major sources of corruption fuelled by current drug policy. It appears the current set of military politicians would prefer to keep the lines of corruption open and flowing. Decriminalizing drugs not only hits corruption, it would be a serious blow to the mafia scum now profiting immensely from the drug trade by working with corrupt officials.

Collateral benefits of decriminalization include: massive savings of the financial and human resources now uselessly wasted on the drug war; increased tax revenue, which could be used to provide rehabilitation and education programs; reduced crime since addicts would not need so much to support that habits; improved health outcomes as help could more easily be obtained; and far less crowded prisons as less Thai youth were lumbered with harmful arrest records for nothing more than seeking some pleasure. Nor is there any reason to think that decriminalization would increase drug use: the evidence on this from cases that compare drug use before and after, or after and before, decriminalization consistently show no strong correlation between the legal status of a drug and the prevalence of use. Worth Googling here are the before and after experiences of Prohibition in the US in the early 20th century (a boon to US mafia), the marijuana experiences of Amsterdam and US states, the opium experience of 19th century China, drug use in Portugal since it decriminalized all personal drug use in 2001, and of course, the regular massive seizures and persistent rates of drug use throughout Thai society show that criminalizing the sale and use of yaa baa and other highly popular drugs has not led to any demonstrable reduction in the use of those drugs by Thais.

With only benefits for society, save harm to two groups, it is hard to understand why any set of politicians would oppose decriminalizing drug use. Do corrupt officials and mafia scum really deserve such profitable indulgence from Thai law makers?

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on May 13, 2017, under the title "Revamp drug policy" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1248810/revamp-drug-policy