Drug use in Thailand is becoming an increasing problem. Heroin and opium are still popular drugs for users in Thailand, but they are being replaced by Yaba. Yaba is a combination of caffeine and methamphetamine, mainly manufactured in Burma.
Other drugs like ecstasy and cocaine are also becoming a serious concern in Thailand, but not as much as heroin and yaba. Thailand has strict laws against drug users, which include the use of the death penalty, but these laws do not stop the people from using drugs. Drug use in Thailand is not only affecting the lower class but all classes of society.
Here in the U.S., the opioid crisis is commanding headlines – but drug abuse abounds worldwide, taking a variety of forms.
In Thailand, a leaf called kratom, which was used traditionally by laborers to blunt the effects of hard physical work, is hooking young people. Epidemiologist Darika Saingam, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews with policymakers, addicts, and others in southern Thailand in an effort to discern the scope of the problem and figure out which policies and health programs could help. She’s shown above, sifting through kratom leaves.
Saingam discussed her work in a recent Stanford Asia Health Policy program article, which mentions that as many as 1.2 million people were involved in drug activities in 2014. She explains: