More on night life crackdowns

[Guest]

Out clubbing in Bangkok? Be ready for drug test

Police raid nightclubs as part of 'social order' campaign

 

BANGKOK: -- Police burst into the dark nightclub after midnight, weave through the crowd and lock the doors, trapping nearly 400 bewildered customers inside. The lights flicker on and a voice over loudspeakers orders everyone to submit to urine tests for drugs.

 

It?s part of a three-year-old ?social order? campaign to curb drug abuse that has cast a damper over Saturday night partying in Bangkok.

 

It started in 2001 with the then interior minister, Purachai Piemsomboon, leading television crews into the neon-lit venues on high-profile busts. He has since gone on to higher office, but his ?Mr. Clean? title has passed to Pracha Maleenont, a former entertainment business and TV station owner, who hasn?t missed a beat in seeking to tame Bangkok?s famously freewheeling nightlife.

 

?The rules are there and so easy to follow,? Pracha, 57, said after taking office as deputy interior minister in late 2002. ?Don?t do anything illegal and I?ll leave you alone.?

 

'An annual event'

 

On a recent night, authorities trained their sights on the Q Bar, a chic Thai-owned establishment often packed with Thai and foreign customers.

 

Waving flashlights, about 50 officers in brown uniforms or civilian clothes moved through the club, handing out sample bottles to the men and women. Woozy customers, men and women, crowded into bathrooms. Someone vomited. Others cursed the police, denying they had taken drugs. The operation went on for about three hours, ending after 3 a.m.

 

Each had to hand a sample to health workers who came with the police, and had to show ID. But there was no system for making sure a customer handed in his or her own urine, and some said they provided samples for others.

 

?It?s pretty much an annual event. It?s a little bit like Christmas,? said Richard Lofthouse, Q Bar?s general manager. ?It seems the last few years it?s happened around exactly the same time ? August-September.?

 

Guests who passed got a green stamp on their forearm. Just two out of 373 people tested positive, and were later cleared, according to club sources who asked not to be identified. The tests cannot distinguish between illicit drugs and legal medications, police say.

 

Harsh penalties

 

Even the absence of drugs is no protection against trouble. Last year, police tried to make the club prohibit dancing because it allegedly didn?t have the appropriate license, Lofthouse said. And this time around, 104 foreigners were bused to a police station where they were fined a small sum for not carrying their passport.

 

Had drugs or underage guests been found in the Q Bar, police could have closed it for 30 days. All the same, and even though no charges were filed, police threatened to shut down the club for a week, but relented when managers suggested the matter be settled in court.

 

Interior Ministry officials said statistics on the number and frequency of the raids were not available, but police say they raid nightclubs every week.

 

The crackdown is part of a campaign by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra?s government to fight drugs and promote what it calls traditional values. Last year, Thaksin launched a violent war on drugs that left 2,300 suspected dealers dead and provoked accusations of human rights violations. Nightspots outside designated entertainment areas have to close earlier and youths under 18 are subject to a curfew.

 

--AP 2004-11-01

[OCgringo]

Is this just another report of the original Q bar raid that was weeks ago ?

[liquidflux]

OCgringo said:

Is this just another report of the original Q bar raid that was weeks ago ?

 

You'd have to go a few years back to reference any "original" Q Bar raid. Like the guy in the article mentions, the place is frequently targeted. I was caught up in one over a year and a half ago, and there had been several before that.

[chuckwoww]

"On a recent night, authorities trained their sights on the Q Bar, a chic Thai-owned establishment often packed with Thai and foreign customers."

 

Thai-owned? I thought David Jacobson was American.

[MaiLuk]

?The rules are there and so easy to follow,? Pracha, 57, said after taking office as deputy interior minister in late 2002. ?Don?t do anything illegal and I?ll leave you alone.?

 

A nice statement he made in late 2002. Apparently his statement is now: "Don't do anything illegal, but I'll still lock you inside a bar and piss test ya." ::

 

 

>>Just two out of 373 people tested positive, and were later cleared, according to club sources who asked not to be identified. <<

 

If this is true, the question is what the fuck are they doing these tests for? Locking down a bar with 373 customers because there might possibly be two people with something in their piss? Seems to me that the people running this circus need to be tested.

 

Of course there is no fucking way 373 people at the q-bar were clean, so if all walked out without being charged it is because...

 

Is it true that the patrons at q-bar tend to have more spending money then lets say the people dancing it up at angels?

[rickfarang]

Well, there was talk of people donating piss to those who needed a clean sample (my wife in the U.S. was a nurse in a mother-baby unit a long time ago, and people would regularly ask her for baby urine, figuring it was clean to substitue for their own for a tox screen, but I am sure nobody would do that now.)

 

So, its possible that only 2 or three out of the mob tested positive (later cleared) because they didnt' know they were going to come up positive and therefore did not take evasive action.

 

It seems like foreigners are not the target in these raids, they are merely colateral damage. The crackdown in general is clearly intended to clean up Thailand to the taste of the conservatives. Its just that there is no special "law free zone" for foreigners. This is the real world.

 

 

RickF

[CondomKing]

rickfarang said:

So, its possible that only 2 or three out of the mob tested positive (later cleared) because they didnt' know they were going to come up positive and therefore did not take evasive action.

RickF

 

Maybe this is the answer, from the above quoted AP article:

"The tests cannot distinguish between illicit drugs and legal medications, police say."

 

Great test. So, what does it test for? "Not exactly urine, 100%"?

[Guest]

Maybe this is the answer, from the above quoted AP article:

"The tests cannot distinguish between illicit drugs and legal medications, police say."

 

More likely a reference to generic nature of the ests. If a person is taking over the counter drugs (painkillers or some cold medications for example) many contain codeine or some variant and would test positive for opiates. These are screening tests only, and there are many varieties of them. (They are also fuckin pricey ....... say US $10 each for good ones)

 

After the screen, a blood test at the hopital and proper lab work should (but not always) refine the results.

 

But only 2 people out of 300+ flunked the first screen ?????? Must have been testing for sobriety.

[MaiLuk]

Dozens came up + wouldn't you agree? The purpose of the tests apparently is to help some who are underpaid earn a living

[Guest]

Rickfarang said

 

"The crackdown in general is clearly intended to clean up Thailand to the taste of the conservatives. Its just that there is no special "law free zone" for foreigners. This is the real world."

 

I think this is the real bottom line on this. Well written.