BANGKOK – The Office of the Narcotics Control Board and police officials seized about 12 tons of marijuana smuggled from a neighboring country over the past eight months and most of them was contaminated with heavy metals and pesticides.
ONCB secretary-general Niyom Termsrisuk said marijuana was actively smuggled into the Northeast because of high demand in Thailand and the use of Thailand as a transit point to third-party countries. Besides, producers improved their techniques of cultivation that allowed it to continue all year long, he said.
In the first eight months of fiscal 2020 (from last October to May), ONCB staff seized 12.2 tons of smuggled marijuana which formed 90% of all seized marijuana in the country, he said.
According to Mr Niyom, most marijuana plantations are in a neighboring country opposite the upper Northeast and marijuana has been smuggled across the Mekong River along the borderline from Nong Khai province downstream to Mukdahan province. Officials’ serious anti-narcotic efforts resulted in the huge seizure.
He said that smuggled marijuana was contaminated with arsenic, mercury, lead, pesticides and fungus which put abusers under health risks. (TNA)
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