Thailand is progression, moving drug addicts from punishment to treatment
As you might know, Thailand decriminalized the use of cannabis on 9 June 2022. But what is horrific if you visit a Thai jail, you will see that they are overcrowded. Thailand used to have a strict position against drugs and put many people in jail. I totally understand that in South East Asia, it is their way to fight against drug. Indonesia for example, has very severe laws against drugs.
But in reality, people that commit murders, sexual assault, theft, or use drugs have different backgrounds and different problems. So in western countries, instead of punishing the drug addicts, we tried to help them with some rehabilitation programs. The used of methamphetamine in Thailand is huge for 2 reasons: 1. They are available everywhere 2. Their cost is very low. So people use them or abuse them but there should be more education done explaining their effects to people. So I was happy to read the following article from the united nations. It is estimated that 57,000 people in Thailand are currently injecting drugs into them. These are not small numbers.
Thailand is moving from From punitive to progressive drug laws and will tackle stigmatization. The article is below.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/06/1137927
