Thailand’s renewed “war on drugs” has come to Pattaya.
At a April 11 meeting, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome announced that the Ministry of Interior has ordered Pattaya officials to comply with its “7-4-3-6” plan to combat illegal narcotics distribution and use.
The plan, announced by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in September, is modeled on the blueprint masterminded by her brother, Thaksin.
Opinion polls continue to show nearly a third of Thais believe drugs are the top crisis facing the country and, during her Aug. 12 birthday message, HM Queen Sirikit called on Yingluck’s newly elected Pheu Thai government to make it a priority.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome announces that the Ministry of Interior has ordered Pattaya officials to comply with its “7-4-3-6” plan to combat illegal narcotics distribution and use.
The 7-4-3-6 program, operated by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung – who in 2008 advocated a return to Thakin’s “no mercy” policy – targets both dealers and at-risk youth with a master plan built on seven “plans”, four “improvements”, three “strategies” and six “urgent priorities”.
The three strategies are built around community activism to control drug use, national resolve to reduce demand and border protection to prevent drugs from entering the country.
Improvements called for center around better news and information dissemination, reform of government agencies and new laws.
Yingluck’s plan – and Thaksin’s before hers – is to hold deputy prime ministers, ministers, chiefs of police, governors, all the way down to village headmen directly responsible for seeing this policy through.
Under the Ministry of Interior directive unveiled this month, Itthiphol and Pattaya’s police will now be under the same scrutiny to carry out Yingluck’s war.
Ministry officials will now begin auditing law enforcement statistics for the past three years to determine what monitoring and training will be needed for area officials. Likely to be introduced are drug tests for government officials and public employees.
