Thailand is a complex country. It has experienced massive changes over the last 30 years. It's political system is chaotic...politicians could literally give people money for their vote. Thaksin Shinawatra was the master of this. He is the hero of the poor but a billionaire who changed laws to benefit his families empire. I remember when my girlfriend and her family all received their money for voting for him. I asked her was this normal, she looked at me strange and said of course..do they not do this in Australia. Well i guess they do in some ways..just not as blatant. Thaksin went on his own personal drug war, telling the police to have no mercy on drug dealers as the meth problem was just out of control. Thousands of people were killed by the police and military. A lot of innocent people and a lot of casual users. The price of meth tripled at this time. But nothing changed..people kept using it and use kept growing. Meth has been ingrained in Thai culture for decades. They used to sell "pep pills" at service stations and chemists. Back then it was called ya khayan (energy pill). It wasn't till 1996 it was renamed ya ba by the then justice minister. It's used by truck and bus drivers, building workers, students, bar girls and just about everyone else. It is absolutely everywhere.
Now the use of ya ba pills is dropping and being replaced by ya ice (crystal meth). It's extremely pure and more expensive. The poor still smoke ya ba, the wealthy and the bar girls who can afford ya ice smoke that. Australia has a bad meth problem, its the only form of speed available but we are practically sober compared to Thailand. So it makes sense that this is the drug the Justice Minister is focusing on. It is costing Thailand a fortune to police it, put people in gaol etc and it's not working. So he wants to change direction. He will face a lot of resistance to this change. People in powerful places have always controlled the Thai drug trade. Specifically the Military and the Police. They make a lot of money from it. They will not want change but there is also a generational change going on in the military who currently run the country. The unexplained obscene wealth of many high ranking officers and police is coming under scrutiny. So things may indeed change. They will face pressure from the US etc not to change but Thailand historically does it's own thing a lot of the time. They have a sense of independence that most Asian countries do not. They are the only country in Asia never to have been colonised. A change like this will only occur while the military is in charge. Politicians of both sides do not have the balls to do things like this. Interesting times indeed.
