web DeskONCB summarizes urgent drug problem resolution results for 25 provinces, 24 provinces pass, Nakhon Si Thammarat fails, reveals Prime Minister Paethongtarn called to meet to give suggestions on drug problem resolution
Pol. Lt. Gen. Panurat Lakboon, Secretary-General of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), chaired a meeting of the Operations Center for Accelerating Treatment, Rehabilitation of Social Conditions, Prevention and Suppression of Drug Abuse. He then gave an interview stating that Ms. Paethongtarn Shinawatra, the Prime Minister, had called her in because she was concerned about the drug problem and said that the government has a clear policy on drugs and will continuously visit the area to listen to the people’s voices in order to solve the drug problem at the local and community levels. The Prime Minister made 7 important recommendations: 1. Solve the drug problem in Tha Wachi District, Roi Et Province and Tha Wang Pha District, Nan Province to become a white province by 30 September 2024.
2. Incr
ease the level of suppression to be strict and decisive, both major and minor dealers, and drugs themselves. Increase the level of asset seizure, because our country has no drug production sources. The production sources are in neighboring countries. 3. Expedite the payment of rewards to military officers who seal border areas to intercept drugs. 4. Integrate officers to seize assets by training police to help seize drug assets. 5. Review the operation, evaluate the results of the drug problem resolution, summarize and present to the Prime Minister. 6. Develop a system to evaluate drug problem resolution data similar to reporting the COVID situation. 7. Expand operations from 25 urgent provinces according to the Cabinet resolution to 77 provinces in fiscal year 2025.
The ONCB Secretary-General also said that after the 3-month urgent period (June 1-August 31) to solve the drug problem in 25 pilot provinces with serious drug problems, the survey results of the National Statistical Office found that 24 out of 2
5 provinces passed the indicators. The drug situation in the area has improved. The people are satisfied. There is 1 province that failed the test, which is Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, which found that not a single baht of the allocated budget was disbursed for drug addiction treatment. And the governor did not lead the problem resolution himself, but assigned it to the deputy governor. This is different from Khon Kaen Province, where the governor led the drug problem resolution himself, which resulted in clear results. The same goes for Chonburi and Pattani Provinces, which have the highest problem resolution. The ONCB will propose to the Prime Minister that if the governor is the CEO to seriously solve the drug problem, the drug problem will be clearly reduced. As for the arrests in 25 provinces, arrests exceeded the target in every province. In September, the drug problems of 77 provinces will be used to create a plan for each area to expand the operation to cover all 77 provinces on October 1, 2024.
Ho
wever, at the end of this month, the ONCB will conduct an operation to arrest and seize assets of a major northern network that has expanded the arrest warrant for a Thai nominee in collaboration with a Muser military officer. Assets including land, houses, and other assets will be seized, worth 100 million baht.
For the suppression results in 25 pilot provinces from June 1 – August 25, 2024, passed the criteria of 94.48 percent, taking action against the target of 228 networks out of the target of 233 networks, arresting 18,764 cases of serious offenses, exceeding the target of 10,924 cases, the highest being Bangkok with 55 networks, investigating assets related to drugs worth more than 1 billion baht.
As for bringing drug addicts into treatment, 52,899 people out of the target of 16,016 people were able to be brought in, passing the criteria by 93.48 percent. By bringing drug addicts with mental symptoms into the treatment process, 20,909 people out of the target of 6,539 people were able to be brought i
n, and 2,812 social rehabilitation centers were set up.
Source: Thai News Agency
