16 employees arrested for drug use
Thais and foreign tourists alike were drug tested when police raided a popular Walking Street disco.
More than 150 police and government officials – including a Ministry of Tourism and Sports inspector and Department of Special Investigations officers – swarmed the Lucifer Disko shortly before closing Oct. 14. They blocked off exits, turned on lights and killed the music as they staged a mass ad-hoc drug test that took two hours to complete.
Despite claiming Lucifer’s was a hotbed of illegal drug activity, all 500 of the patrons tested negative for drug use. Sixteen discotheque employees, however, tested positive and were taken into custody.
Police keep exits to a crowded bar blocked off as they test everyone there for illicit drug use.
Police said they also found methamphetamine drug paraphernalia hidden in the men’s restroom. Investigators also said the club carried what they deemed an inordinate amount of allergy medicine and paracetamol. Club management, however, said the tablets were for the disco’s many employees who suffer headaches from Lucifer’s ear-splitting music volume.
