Reason for crackdown

[iagra]

Various threads in the board have recently commented on the current crackdown, which must have begun round about the same time I left Bangkok (30 July), though I swear that’s pure coincidence.

I am a recent, almost annual, tourist by now to the LOS, first visiting in 1994. I stay mainly (pause while rich expatriates snigger up their sleeves ) in the Khao San Road, though on my last trip I treated myself to a few nights at the Nana Hotel.

Bangkok has always been my favourite place – I’m a city boy, I suppose - but I’ve also been to Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Koh Samet, Koh Samui, Pattaya and Sukkhothai.

OK. Now that we’ve established my lack of credentials, my question is this;

If drug activity in these establishments, at these times, is the real target, as reported in the press and mentioned without much comment on this board, is there anybody out there who can genuinely accept this as a valid pretext for the current situation?

For what is worth, even though I consider myself to be an observer of human life, I have never yet seen any sign of drug use/abuse either in the KS Road or in any of the entertainment areas or outlying provinces (unless you count one night of a hill-tribe trek in 1994.) When it was recently suggested here that 90% of BGs were on amphetamines, for example, my own experience told me that this was a whopping over-estimation, with an error factor of at least 85%. Half the dancers obviously use Ritalin, but that’s another question entirely.

Seriously, why has the “drug” justification by some officials not been challenged more vociferously in this arena, or am I missing something here?

[jagoturner]

I'm not a statistics man, neither am I on the scene, but I can confirm that amphetimine usage among bargirls has been exceptionally heavy since the price of heroin went up in the mid-late nineties. The last time I was there on an extended trip a hugely disproportionate number of the girls I knew were using. I also stayed on KSR a lot in the early nineties and though I didn't notice so much conspicuous consumption I was frequently approached by dealers there.

I also think the drug thing has very little to do with the real reasons behind the clampdown. But that's a seperate thread.

[Palatkik]

Todays Nation has poll results http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.news.php3?clid=3&theme=A&usrsess=1&id=1902 suggesting the current clamp down is approved by the majority of Thai's in the capital.

Cheers

[pattaya127]

quote:

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Originally posted by iagra:

, I have never yet seen any sign of drug use/abuse either in the KS Road or in any of the entertainment areas or outlying provinces (unless you count one night of a hill-tribe trek in 1994.)

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Look again!

[Guest]

Yup.......look again.