BANGKOK, Oct 12 – Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) is working with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to thwart illegal drug selling using new technology’s social networks, according to Pol Gen Pongsapat Pongcharoen, secretary-general.
Gen Pongsapat said he asked ONCB to determine the source of the drugs and drug paraphernalia sold on social networks as young people are considered an at-risk group.
ONCB and the ICT ministry are cooperating to launch an online public campaign, urging the public to help monitor and alert the police on illegal drug trading via the Internet using the ONCB hotline 1386.
Parcels will be checked strictly to thwart illegal drug delivery via the postal service, he added.
The move came after the police on Thursday arrested two university students selling methamphetamine pills on the social network Facebook in the northern province of Chiang Mai and seized almost 1,000 pills.
Regarding the narcotics crackdown among youth, Gen Pongsapat said Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will preside over the launching of the project to crack down narcotics in 12 communities, facing drug problem at the critical level.
Of a total of 12 communities, three are in the capital and nine are in the provinces.
The project is aimed at rehabilitating young drug addicts and then helping them continue studies or find jobs.
Next week, surveillance cameras will be installed in 12 communities to pressure small-scale drug peddlers.
