News Forum - US man arrested for trafficking fentanyl into Thailand

[Thaiger]

A man from the United States has been arrested for trafficking fentanyl – an opioid deadlier than heroin – and other illicit drugs into Thailand. Police also arrested a Thai woman in connection with the case. It is the first time Thailand has made arrests for fentanyl trafficking, according to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). In a press conference yesterday, Far East Representative of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Mark Snyder joined Secretary-General of the ONCB Wichai Chaimongkhon to comment on the arrests. Wichai said that Thailand’s authorities X-rayed a suspicious package from the US on […]

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[Pinetree]

This is nasty stuff and kills many in the US each year.  Steer well clear. 

[Fanta]

Oh my.. the quantities are small and would cost you a maximum of 10 years in prison if procured locally but importing them = a life sentence… 

[TheDirtyDurian]

So easy to buy the stuff online from China. Thailand better hope they don't end up like the US where it's out of control. 

[MikeW]

If and when found guilty he deserves the death penalty 

[23RD]

If found guilty impose the death sentence by making him eat a teaspoon of his own drug. 

[Skip]

Drug dealers should be prosecuted for the murders that they contribute to...

[Fanta]

5 minutes ago, Skip said:

Drug dealers should be prosecuted for the murders that they contribute to...

And where does this transfer of blame and  avoidance of personal responsibility end?  Should gun & ammo manufacturers should be charged with being accomplices to the homicide they contribute to, dress designers as accomplices to the sexual assault they contribute to, vehicle sellers for carnage on the roads etc etc ? 
I am not defending drug dealers. I am saying your short sighted approach ignores the greater societal issues caused by ineffective & inappropriate attitudes to illegal drug consumption and represents an escalation of the proven failed policy of criminalising drug use. 

[Marc26]

3 hours ago, Skip said:

Drug dealers should be prosecuted for the murders that they contribute to...

Aren't they???

I'm pretty drug dealing is quite illegal 555

[USA2ChiangMai]

Another way of thinning the herd.

[Manu]

9 hours ago, Skip said:

Drug dealers should be prosecuted for the murders that they contribute to...

So should McDonalds and it is legal...

[Manu]

On 9/16/2022 at 7:47 AM, Fanta said:

Oh my.. the quantities are small and would cost you a maximum of 10 years in prison if procured locally but importing them = a life sentence… 

Yeah, and it is obviously for his own use. But does any drug addict have any touch with the real world?

[palooka]

On 9/16/2022 at 5:24 PM, 23RD said:

If found guilty impose the death sentence by making him eat a teaspoon of his own drug. 

Apt sentence to fit the crime.

[palooka]

He should have swallowed the evidence and saved everyone the bother.

[TheDirtyDurian]

4 hours ago, Manu said:

Yeah, and it is obviously for his own use. But does any drug addict have any touch with the real world?

4g of fentanyl is far from personal use. It's actually enough to kill over a thousand people...

[Vigo]

On 9/16/2022 at 2:47 PM, Fanta said:

Oh my.. the quantities are small and would cost you a maximum of 10 years in prison if procured locally but importing them = a life sentence… 

Please educate yourself on fentanyl. Doesn't matter if quantity is small. The safe dosing is in micrograms. In palliative care with patient near death, the maximum hourly dose is  2 micrograms/kg. Let's say the user is  60kg.  that's 120µg for one hour. This gives  0.0001200000g.    It is potent in minute doses.   He was smuggling 8 grams of ketamine, 9 grams of methamphetamine, 2 grams of ecstasy, 10 grams of cocaine and 4 grams of fentanyl. The amounts are not for personal use.  4 gr = 4,000,000 micrograms.  That looks to me like he could sell 30,000-40,000 doses.

What is the logic behind your complaint about penalty for local purchase vs. import? Local purchase indicates addict use vs. import for sale to make profit. There is a difference between the two activities is there not? Therefore  the penalty can be expected to be different.

The people importing and pushing fentanyl are pushing death. They are murderers because no one survives long term non medicinal fentanyl use. It always ends in death. 

[Fanta]

2 hours ago, Vigo said:

What is the logic behind your complaint about penalty for local purchase vs. import?

It wasn’t a complaint. It was an observation that he perhaps he didn’t know the penalties for importing drugs into Thailand as opposed to possession inside Thailand. Importing a few grams of any drug can mean decades in prison. Go big or go home.

Fentanyl is a Category 2 drug in Thailand, same as cocaine = no big deal and no long punishment. Category 1 drugs such as ice and heroin are harsh prison sentences. He imported what appeared to me to be a pack of drugs for personal use. ie: import any amount of drugs into Thailand and he is guaranteed to be looking at a long prison sentence whereas purchasing the same locally is far less harsh. 
 

2 hours ago, Vigo said:

Please educate yourself on fentanyl. Doesn't matter if quantity is small. 

I wasn’t aware of that. Cheers

[Skip]

21 hours ago, Fanta said:

And where does this transfer of blame and  avoidance of personal responsibility end?  Should gun & ammo manufacturers should be charged with being accomplices to the homicide they contribute to, dress designers as accomplices to the sexual assault they contribute to, vehicle sellers for carnage on the roads etc etc ? 
I am not defending drug dealers. I am saying your short sighted approach ignores the greater societal issues caused by ineffective & inappropriate attitudes to illegal drug consumption and represents an escalation of the proven failed policy of criminalising drug use. 

You are the short sighted one... dealing drugs is illegal... your comparisons are legal... 

[Janneman]

On 9/16/2022 at 4:11 AM, Thaiger said:

an opioid deadlier than heroin

Heroin in itself isnt deadly. Depends on the dose, and what other stuff has been mixed with it. The same goes for fentanyl I guess. And for lots of other things.

Kitchen salt is deadlier than heroin. If you eat 1 kilo in 1 day you're dead.

Water is deadlier than heroin. If you drink 20 liters in 1 day you're dead.

[Fanta]

25 minutes ago, Skip said:

You are the short sighted one... dealing drugs is illegal... your comparisons are legal... 

and marijuana was illegal until it wasn’t. Should we punish the users as harshly as the dealers because one cannot exist without the other? Or accept the fact that drugs aren’t going away any century soon and change our approach from punishment to education? 

[Janneman]

Alcohol causes a lot of problems. In Europe 3% of the population is alcoholic. With lots of health issues. And quite a few traffic accidents in Thailand are caused by drunk drivers. It is safe to say that alcohol causes more deaths in Thailand than heroine and cocaine.

Until 100 years ago heroine and cocaine were commonly used medicines. Dunno why they became illegal, probably because it made patients too happy. But using heroine or cocaine doesnt cause much health issues, nor traffic accidents. Alcohol does.

So why is alcohol legal (after a certain age) and are heroine and cocaine illegal?

 

[Skip]

23 hours ago, Fanta said:

and marijuana was illegal until it wasn’t. Should we punish the users as harshly as the dealers because one cannot exist without the other? Or accept the fact that drugs aren’t going away any century soon and change our approach from punishment to education? 

No problem... change the laws... make drugs legal... but until then prosecute

[Marc26]

16 hours ago, Janneman said:

Alcohol causes a lot of problems. In Europe 3% of the population is alcoholic. With lots of health issues. And quite a few traffic accidents in Thailand are caused by drunk drivers. It is safe to say that alcohol causes more deaths in Thailand than heroine and cocaine.

Until 100 years ago heroine and cocaine were commonly used medicines. Dunno why they became illegal, probably because it made patients too happy. But using heroine or cocaine doesnt cause much health issues, nor traffic accidents. Alcohol does.

So why is alcohol legal (after a certain age) and are heroine and cocaine illegal?

If you look at the damage alcohol has done it really is astonishing that it is legal vs other substances 

 

And you are correct regarding health issues

 

If an alcoholic stops drinking cold turkey they can die

 

A cocaine or herioin addict stopping cold turkey will not die, just feel awful

 

Add in all the domestic violence and DUI's attributed to alcohol

 

Alcohol has had some serious lobbyists through the decades!

 

 

 

[MikeTexas]

On 9/16/2022 at 7:30 PM, Fanta said:

And where does this transfer of blame and  avoidance of personal responsibility end?  Should gun & ammo manufacturers should be charged with being accomplices to the homicide they contribute to, dress designers as accomplices to the sexual assault they contribute to, vehicle sellers for carnage on the roads etc etc ? 
 

I think it is quite easy to separate a dress designer from a sexual assault unless you believe the woman deserves it based on how she is dressed (certainly not saying you do just making a point).  But I feel it is impossible to separate meth or heroin from illegal drug use. 

Importers, transporters, manufacturers, dealers, and users all share in the blame.  

In my opinion the war on drugs can never be won because doing so would require demand to vanish.  As that will never happen, the level of penalty for such offensives only alters how creative the people are with regards to importation, manufacture, and/or sale of the drugs.  Possibly it is better to legalize some drugs and then focus resourced on eradicating  the more harmful ones as much as possible.

[Janneman]

2 hours ago, MikeTexas said:

But I feel it is impossible to separate meth or heroin from illegal drug use. 

Until hundred years ago heroine and cocaine were normal medicines. Nothing illegal about them then. Once they were declared illegal problems began.