I hate that I have to talk about such tragic things every now and then when it comes to Thailand but there are certain aspects of this country that are less than awesome and one of the main ones is that they don't really have a lot of options for poor people that end up with drug problems. In much more wealthy western countries there is normally at least some sort of help for addicts, in particular places that I have heard of like Portugal and Norway, where they have abandoned the war on drugs and instead funneled a lot of that money into rehabilitation instead of putting people in jail for abuse.
Here in Thailand there are a lot of drug-treatment / detox centers, but they are expensive and are largely marketed as "resorts" of sorts for foreigners with some money. I know a woman who is a psychologist at one of these places and what she describes sounds really nice but obviously well out of the financial reach of your average poor Thai farming family.
What happened recently in Udon Thani is just heartbreaking and perhaps showcases what drug addiction can really do to a person. A grandson stabbed his grandfather to death inside of his own house after the grandfather had been refusing to give his grandson cigarettes during the night or at least that is what is stated. The grandson, who himself is 37 years old, was pestering the old man and his wife at all hours of the night when they were trying to sleep. I guess gramps was just trying to give some tough love to his grandson, who was being very unreasonable and selfish.
The main type of addiction that I am aware of here in Thailand is a type of meth that is called "ya-ba" which means "crazy drug" in Thai. It comes in fill form and I guess, having never done it, that it can be simply taken as a tablet or smoked like a lot of the users do. I'm not up to speed on my drug-use terminology having never really been exposed to a great deal of them.
This grandchild has been problematic his entire life and basically has been living off the generosity of his grandparents since he was young. The details are iffy right now and there isn't likely to be a follow-up, but the grandson (I hesitate to call him a "boy") has been in and out of drug addiction basically his entire life, according to others in the neighborhood.
The grandparents are from a different generation though and they looked after the grandchild anyway including supporting him with money and even places to stay. I guess this is the power of meth though because in a moment of drug-fueled rage, he decided that his grandfather's reluctance to give him cigarettes was reason enough to stab him multiple times, killing him in the lounge of his own house.
The grandson, who goes by the nickname "Tom" was easily apprehended without incident by police as he was inside his own house, which his grandparents provided for him, and he made no attempt to flee. He has been charged with intentional manslaughter and this should be an open and shut case.
While Tom was tolerated by the community, he wasn't liked and was known as a drug-addled nuisance. His grandparents on the other hand were known for being kind, caring, and upstanding members of the community.
I'm one of those people that thinks that drugs should be legal and that if a person is dumb enough to allow it to ruin their lives, that is their choice and their own fault. I may have to rethink this though and draw the line right around something like cheap meth. Marijuana is affordable and never makes anyone go into a rage-fit, and other things like cocaine are so expensive that nobody outside of the elite can afford to even try it. Ya Ba, is a different monster altogether though and even though it kind of goes against what I believe a country should enforce, that thing needs to be stopped. Thailand has been fighting a war on drugs for a very long time but just like most countries that do the same, it doesn't really seem to net any sort of great results. As sad as it sound the only time I am aware of there being and real progress in the war on drugs was when an ex Prime Minister, who was removed from office by a coup d'état, treated drug distributers, producers, and even mules with extreme consequences, sometimes by executing them en masse without a trial.
I don't know what the solution is, but what they are doing now clearly isn't working.