BANGKOK: Thailand's new Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is mobilising a crackdown on illegal drugs as a United Nations agency reveals a massive increase in the production and use of amphetamines across Asia.
The crackdown comes eight years after a ''war on drugs'' overseen by Ms Yingluck's older brother Thaksin Shinawatra during which almost 3000 Thais involved with drugs were killed by still unidentified assassins.
But this time Ms Yingluck said drug addicts would be treated as patients so they can later return to society. ''As a mother, I do not want to see children fall victim to drugs,'' she said.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Chalerm Yubamrung, who is setting up a one-year drug suppression unit, said the campaign will partly focus on blocking drug shipments into Thailand.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Regional Centre for East Asia and the Pacific warned yesterday that the manufacture of amphetamine-type substances has undergone an industrial revolution, outstripping the use of heroin and cocaine as organised crime groups have become involved in their manufacture and distribution.