On Oct 13, 2:28 am, Bl...@Runner.com (Deckard) wrote:
> Golden Triangle blooms again
> by Achara Ashayagachat and Subin Khuenkaew
>
> Since the September 19 coup last year, authorities have put less
> emphasis on eradication. Production likely will increase again next
> year - this time by teenaged growers tempted by what they see as lax
> government controls, and profits.
>
> -----------------------------------
>
> Opium poppy cultivation in Thailand doubled from 2004-2006, with
> teenagers increasingly getting involved in the trade, a narcotics
> official said on Thursday. The finding is in line with the latest
> report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which revealed a
> resurgence in opium production in the Golden Triangle, where the
> borders of Laos, Burma and Thailand meet.
>
> Pipop Chamnivikaipong, director of the Narcotic Crops Survey and
> Monitoring Institute, said areas planted with poppies in Thailand had
> gradually increased from 700 rai in 2004 to 900 rai in 2005 and 1,400
> rai last year. Releasing the institute's annual survey in Bangkok
> yesterday, he said the Thaksin administration's war against drugs had
> contributed to a sharp drop in opium production in Thailand.
>
> Since the September coup last year there had been less emphasis on
> eradication and some growers and traffickers were taking advantage of
> it. Mr Pipop predicted production would increase again next year,
> mainly in remote areas of Chiang Mai such as Om Koi district.
> "The growers are not the same as before. They're teenagers tempted by
> what they see as lax government controls, and profits," he said.
>
> Xavier Bouan, a Rangoon-based UNODC expert of the Illicit Crop
> Monitoring Programme, said opium production in Thailand last year was
> up 25% to 3.2 tonnes, Burma increased 46% to 460 tonnes and Laos was
> up 54% to 9.2 tonnes. About 163,000 households in Burma were involved
> in opium poppy cultivation, compared with about 1,600 households in
> Thailand, he said.
>
> Unless an immediate alternative livelihood programme was undertaken in
> the Golden Triangle, about 200,000 households would soon return to
> poppy cultivation, he said. Mr Bouan said the most worrisome trend in
> the region was in the southern part of Shan state, which is
> responsible for 64% of Burma's opium cultivation.
>
> Shariq bin Raza, the UNODC representative to Burma, denied the Shan
> area was singled out because of the presence there of anti-government
> rebels. "In areas where fewer groups control the fields it's easier to
> control opium production or monitor eradication, like in the Wa area
> where they have done quite well in the past few years, until now," Mr
> Raza said. Narcotics Control Board officials said in Chiang Mai that
> cash is no longer a usual part of transactions between drug dealers.
>
> Suppliers along the northern Thai borders were mostly ethnic minority
> people, including the Wa militant groups, and the southern border area
> of Thailand is the lucrative destination for their drugs. Traffickers
> can get 10 times what they would for the same drugs in the North.
>
> To cover their trail, drug suppliers in the North are collecting
> payment in goods rather than in cash, say officials. The drugs are
> brought in from Burma, mostly via the Mae Sai border checkpoint in
> Chiang Rai. Local traders estimate that billions of baht of drugs are
> smuggled through the checkpoint each month. Commodities worth about
> the same amount are then transported back into Burma as payment.
>
> When suppliers receive their orders, they match them with orders for
> commodities such as construction equipment, which their customers
> order from Bangkok. The clients pay for the goods with the cash they
> get from drug sales in the deep South, officials said.
>
> source:www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122565
> _
> So the rumor was true.
> Drug is the dictators' best friend!
>
> :-(
> Mort
Drugs seems to do their work very well with our resident poor sod in a
wheelchair, Takin Gthepiss.
Every day he takes a handfull of drugs, yaabaa, and start
hallucinating that he is in Thailand.
Sometimes, he even hallucinates to meet me and my wife, but I think
that this is rather a remnant from living in fear as a coward, hiding
behind a fake identity out of fear that someone might get to know his
real identity.
Takin should really stop to take these funny drugs everyday and face
the real life.
But that would take some bravery, a characteristic he doesnt has.
--
Takin Gthepiss:
"If you want to make fun of me, that's fine."
USENET:
Sure as hell we like to fun of you
********************************
Note: if you or others knows the coward Takin Gthepiss real identity
or his
real name, publish it here and saves us the money of a lawyer to do
that.
>From NtlWord.com (an ISP provider of Takin Gthepiss):
"If you feel that the incident you are reporting warrants involvement
of an appropriate law enforcement body then you must report the
incident yourself.
We will then cooperate fully with them as is appropriate under United
Kingdom law."
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