Chapter 5
From the Producer to the Consumer
p. 53-64
Texte intégral
A Chain of Middlemen
1It is not easy to describe the chain of middlemen that makes up metham-phetamine networks in Thailand. Middleman practices differ according to the economic situation, the players, and market needs. For yaa baa to reach the Thai consumer from Burma, where it is most often produced, many different types of circuits are possible. Drugs might change hands numerous times; alternatively, they might be acquired at their source directly by the final user.
2Hence, the outline given here is not a reflection of the reality, but of a reality. Inspired by the works of Nualnoi Treerat, Noppanun Wannathepsakul and Daniel Ray Lewis,1 the following scenario presents a composite picture of the different categories of players.
Exiting the Border Areas
3The first objective of traffickers is to cross the border. This short but dangerous mission is often entrusted to frontier runners. These people who are from the hill tribe minorities are known for their thorough mastery of their environment, with its torturous landscapes, and their determination to cross the border. As members of ethnic communities artificially broken up by lines of demarcation, the frontier runners share an inherent sense of both their region and themselves as trans-national. Hill minorities of the various countries of the region suffer from discriminatory policies that sometimes shade into persecution. For such individuals Thailand is a sanctuary exploited for economic rather than political ends.
4Drugs are transported on foot, on the back of animals, and sometimes in vehicles that can cover rough terrain. Traffickers bring the merchandise to small towns of the border area such as Mae Sot. They often make use of simple hiding places dug in the soil, or store the drugs in warehouses until an agent of the traffickers or a local wholesaler is ready to sell the stock. It is then transported to the customer through a drop-off point decided at the last minute. An impromptu drop-off point minimises the risks linked to the transfer. In concrete terms, it means that merchandise and money change hands in agreed-upon locations whose details are known only by the parties involved; this way, in case of a tip-off, only one link in the chain of intermediaries is arrested. This strategy is especially crucial when large quantities of drugs are involved.
5However, not all drug stocks are necessarily transferred in the border towns. Several of the frontier runners who have been arrested during delivery operations well to the south were of Burmese nationality, suggesting they were on journeys to destinations in Bangkok or other important cities in the kingdom.
6When the Burmese drug traffickers themselves do not transport the methamphetamine to the heart of the Thai territory, their hired men or transport agents paid by a big city wholesaler take charge of the merchandise. The Thai police estimate that every day, 5,000 trucks carrying greater or lesser quantities of drugs leave the north of the country for southern regions.
7Individual traffickers lack the necessary inside connections with the police at every zone that must be crossed, making transit through Thai territory extremely risky. To outwit officials, those responsible for moving the drugs have become more and more inventive. Some have even staged a moving house charade, where an entire family is enlisted to hide drugs inside the household furniture.
The Influence of Wholesalers
8Whereas middlemen drug marketing chains can be relatively simple in smaller locations, Bangkok’s population size and urban density necessitate a complex distributing network for its drug traffic. Numerous wholesalers of significant means are therefore required to sell the pills. For the largest of these, turnover varies anywhere from 100,000 tablets per day to a more typical 100,000 tablets per week. Large wholesalers generally sell to medium wholesalers in batches of 5,000 to 10,000 tablets and use sophisticated networks of informers and agents for this purpose.
9Large wholesalers generally command respect and influence, and may make use of links with police and politicians to do business. It is difficult to bring charges against them as they cleverly mix legal and illegal activities. It seems that each wholesaler reigns over a particular territory in which he is the sole distributor of the drug. Illicit drug wholesalers thus rarely compete against one another.
10Whether the territory they control is a locality of Bangkok or a provincial city, all large drug wholesalers are referred to as jao pho in Thai, which generally translates as “godfather”. Originally the term was used to describe traders of Chinese origin whose local respectability had increased as their businesses became more successful.2
11The jao pho, in the current accepted sense of the term, carefully cultivates his image as a man of high class and influence (phu yai). When necessary he uses his money, friends, and networks to neutralise and possibly usurp the power of the local bureaucracy, when he himself does not take on the responsibility of an elected post.3 He can speed construction of a road or a bridge with the money he invests. His donations serve to maintain or expand temples complexes. He finances the big, costly ceremonies dictated by society such as marriages and funerals. He shows compassion towards those that he protects and who reside in the zone under his sway.
12He is not, however, a moneylender from whom one borrows at prohibitive rates. The jao pho likes to give the impression of being generous, but strictly adheres to the rule of give and take — even if the return gift is only of symbolic value.4 In exchange for his generosity, the jao pho demands the unflinching support of the population. He may thus pay a high price to ensure their silence about any of his illegal activities.
A police officer laments that everybody around him, including his own superior, belongs to the clan of jao pho. “Each time there is a problem”, he explains, “we go to see the jao pho. School has reopened but you don’t have the money to pay? Go to him. Your wife is pregnant and will deliver soon, but you don’t have the money to pay the hospital? Ask the jao pho. He gives you all the money you need. His influence is huge. Everybody is indebted to him up to their neck”.
Pasuk Phongpaichit and Sungsidh Piriyarangsang (1994), p. 85
13The influence of the jao pho in politics is not limited to the local level. In regional or national politics, a jao pho will not hesitate to support several parties simultaneously if their policies defend his interests. These “godfathers” thus do not grant much importance to ideology, a common posture in the general population. Before the electoral campaign of 1986, one could observe the curious phenomenon of posters displaying together a father and his son, each of whom was supporting a different political party. In this case (and others), family ties take precedence over political considerations. By buying votes, a common practice in Thailand, the jao pho can make or break career prospects of MP’s or ministers.5
14In the past, where the drug trade is concerned, there had been much bloodshed in the world of jao pho due to settling of accounts. In zones that were the most affected by trafficking, conflicts between local notables who were attempting to seize commercial opportunities and ensure their political pre-eminence often spilled over into gangsterism. For a while, places such as Petchaburi and Chonburi even became notorious for the drug-related social insecurity that prevailed there.6 Deplorably, the jao pho implicated in such incidents have generally faced little retribution, no more so than that meted out to lesser wholesalers and independent dealers for their involvement.
15One can speculate that the considerable growth of the market is responsible for the lessening volume of violent conflict one observes in the trade at the uppermost level of the middleman chains. Put very simply, the jao pho and their minions are evidently finding it more profitable to look for new clients than to covet those whose needs are already satisfied by others.7 When this hypothesis is linked to the recent economic situation, it seems all the more plausible. The typical chain of middlemen in chronological order is shown in the following chart.
The Chain of Intermediaries in Methamphetamine Trafficking
| STAGE | DRUG LOCATION | PHYSICAL CONTROL | OWNER |
| Chinese Laboratory | Producers of semi-legal precursors | ||
| TRANSPORT | Diverse, depending on the precursors | Couriers | Burmese drug traffickers |
| Burmese Laboratory | At the laboratory | Employees of the laboratory | Burmese drug traffickers |
| TRANSPORT | On foot or car | Couriers (frontier runners), paramilitary groups | Burmese drug traffickers |
| Border City | In warehouses | Sales representatives, shopkeepers | Burmese drug traffickers or border wholesalers |
| TRANSPORT | Car or pick-up | Independent transport agent | Burmese drug traffickers or independent operators |
| Hired transport agent | Burmese drug traffickers or large wholesalers | ||
| At the Large Wholesaler’s | Rented house | Underlings | Large wholesalers |
| TRANSPORT | On foot or car | Underlings | Medium wholesalers |
| At the Medium Wholesaler’s | Rented apartment Drop location | Medium wholesaler | |
| TRANSPORT | Porterage or car | Retailer | |
| At the Retailer’s | Hidden at home | Retailer | |
| TRANSPORT | From hand to hand | Dealer | |
| At the Dealer’s | Hidden or on him | Dealer | |
| TRANSPORT | From hand to hand | Consumer | |
| Consumer | At his place or on him | Consumer | |
Source: Nualnoi Treerat, Noppanun Wannathepsakul, and Daniel Ray Lewis (2000).
The Clandestine Work of Medium Wholesalers
16In the supply chain of yaa baa, medium wholesalers are usually loyal to the larger wholesalers on whom they depend.8 But medium whole-salers can occasionally turn to independent operators who transport methamphetamine directly from the border.9 The risk of using independent intermediaries is correspondingly greater as such actions short-circuit networks already in place and lack given levels of protection from local authorities. However, the existence of maverick supply lines fuels competition by diversifying supply, a prospect ultimately favouring the medium wholesaler.10
17Medium wholesalers typically stock their drugs in locations beyond their immediate quarters, more often than not in rented apartments. They generally sell methamphetamine in batches of 200 tablets to numerous small retailers. If their market share increases, they respond by “authorising” an additional retailer on the same territory.
18Like heroin, methamphetamine and its derivatives fall under Category 1 of the International Classification of Narcotics. Thai law stipulates that the production of amphetamine derivatives or their trafficking can, in some cases, justify capital punishment. Theoretically, the illegal trafficking of these tablets is punished according to the level at which the trafficker is placed — whether dealer, retailer, medium wholesaler, or wholesaler. Each one therefore tries to underplay his role in the trafficking. The consumer is protected from prosecution by the insignificant quantities of drugs in his possession, while the wholesaler is protected by his power.11 It is therefore the medium wholesalers and the retailers who run the greatest risks. They lack sufficient influence to ensure their own protection, and the quantities of drugs they distribute are too significant for them to evade suspicion.
19The transport stage is particularly crucial, and hence strategies of delivery are many. Medium wholesalers may meet directly with clients, but generally prefer to use a “drop-point” strategy or hire minors to deliver the drugs. Very young children are often used, as children under the age of seven cannot be taken to court according to Thai law. In this way those responsible avoid exposing themselves to the police, as transporting the drug is a clear proof of a suspect’s involvement in a criminal network. The risk taken in drug transport and delivery is not only physical. It is also financial, if the invested capital is subsequently lost.
The Emergence of Retailers and Dealers from the Ranks of Consumers
20Retailers can attain a distribution volume of up to 1,000 tablets per week, which they sell to small dealers.12 Merchandise is sold in small batches according to demand, but never exceeding the entire packet (200 tablets). They also deal in retail by selling directly to the biggest consumers, those that buy in lots of 10 or 20 tablets in order to get a better price. Unit sales are reserved for small dealers.
21For dealers who typically sell about 50 tablets per day, competition is tough. As the drug circuit functions by direct sale, dealing necessarily implies a personal relationship with the consumer. Competition between dealers is therefore based on their own personalities and the level of personal trust established with customers. The degree of secrecy prompts the customer to patronise a supplier who will be his regular. The supplier has to use tested marketing techniques to become a regular by, for example, offering free samples to new potential users in order to stimulate demand.
22By offering substantial discounts on the purchase of larger quantities, the dealers tempt consumers to buy more pills than they can actually use. So, consumers turn around and sell the excess to new customers, for whom they themselves become trusted suppliers. In fact, the yaa baa market spreads according to a principle of upwards social mobility. More often than not, one enters the yaa baa dealing trade by moving from the role of a consumer to that of a dealer, and then advancing to a retailer. The progression takes a certain amount of time — generally, one or two years to become a dealer and two or three more years to become a retailer.13 But many dealers do not cross this last stage. Graduating to the complex role of medium wholesalers is much less common as it requires significant capital.
23In light of the fact that most regular drug consumers have few alternative sources of employment, the temptation to become a small dealer is strong, as financial rewards are considerable. By dealing, the consumer will be able to pay for his own drug consumption. With a little luck, he will also earn a living. In Burma, each pill sells for 8 to 16 baht (20 to 40 euro cents) whereas the Thai wholesale price ranges from 20 to 25 baht (50 to 60 euro cents). The consumer pays 70 to 120 baht (1.75 to 3 euros).14 To earn pocket money, youngsters sell the tablets in their schools, districts, or villages, as one can make a good profit by being the last to sell to the end user. This is because the final selling price is the result of a direct negotiation with the consumer.
24Despite the margin obtained on each pill, the small dealer can never cherish the hope of dethroning the wholesaler who makes handsome gains from engaging in large-scale yaa baa transactions. The social mobility of dealers is real, but quickly reaches its limits. However, a person with no links to the police force who wishes to earn bigger sums of money has a simple but risky alternative: he can buy independently.
25It is possible to source an independent supply by going to the northern part of the country to buy on one’s own. A vehicle is necessary for such an undertaking to evade existing networks of middlemen — something not easy for an addict to obtain, as he is often unemployed with no permanent roof over his head. Employing couriers also poses a danger if the relationships are not dependable.
26Once a drug supply arrives in Thailand, seven intermediaries separate the newly-arrived stock from the end consumer. These seven consist of the frontier runner; the shopkeeper of the border city; the main transport agent; the large wholesaler’s lackey; the medium wholesaler; the retailer; and finally, the dealer. According to Nualnoi, Noppanun, and Lewis, as soon as one of the supply-chain middlemen acquires sufficient funds, he acts to ensure his own protection by dropping out of direct participation and designating a substitute to help him transport the drug instead. Avoiding the transport phase is of central importance so as to avoid the risk of being caught red-handed. This is why one must take care to distinguish the person in physical possession of the drug in the supply chain, from the actual owner of the illicit goods.
27Traffickers look for support from state or local authorities for their businesses. There is likely regular contact between the traffickers and the police. The involvement of the latter can become useful at various levels. The police can supply information on future action of their units. They can also “look the other way” and ignore illegal activities of the trafficker. Policemen, judges, and politicians can also allow a trafficker to escape if such officials are threatened or bribed into doing so.15
Supplying Consumers throughout Thailand
28Users, the final link in the methamphetamine chain, can obtain their supply of yaa baa quite easily. They generally avoid consuming drugs in public, and subpopulations of methamphetamine users tend to stay isolated from one another. But the large number of dealers makes it possible for users to procure the tablets for themselves quickly and easily.
29Yaa baa is now a fixture on the party scene, where these pills have become as common and necessary as the bottle of local whisky.16 It is also consumed in large quantities in discotheques, the only problem being that a consumer has to express his intention to buy as discreetly as possible. Thus, he often resorts to codes. By placing his hand over his mouth and pretending to gulp, he signals “I want yaa baa”, explains Mr. Saichon, a social worker in a Bangkok hospital.17 On the other hand, if the consumer “places his nail under his nostril” he is asking for yaa kèè, that is to say, ketamine powder.18 Long fingernails are common among both women and men in Thailand, making it easy for members of either sex to hide small quantities of the product underneath the nail.
30Even if potential consumers cannot locate the urban or suburban house used as a den — a place for drug stocking and distribution by the traffickers — they can still obtain their drug supplies easily enough. Yaa baa is available in seemingly every nook and cranny of ordinary life in Thailand: in a restaurant, from grilled meat sellers in the street or with florists who sell garlands meant to protect drivers from road risks. The customer can also approach the local petrol station attendant, the travelling salesman who visits villages in his pick-up, the hawker who goes from sugar cane plantations to rubber plantations, the farmer, or the truck driver.19 “In Bangkok, there are 10,000 small streets. You can buy yaa baa in each one of them”, claimed a taxi driver recently.20
31It is also easy to obtain methamphetamine in schools, zones that are relatively protected, but not always supervised. The school playground is a popular place for exchanging tablets. As yaa baa traffickers increasingly focus on younger populations, schools and universities have become the leading sites for large concentrations of dealers. In these highly competitive places, margins are suppressed and prices are correspondingly low.
32The methamphetamine trade does not target urban regions exclusively, however. A study conducted by Aaron Peak gives excellent insight into rural-urban regional disparities in drug consumption based on local practices and the special characteristics of each region.21
The West
33Two Thai provinces on the Burmese border, Mae Sot and Ranong, have a considerable number of ATS consumers. At Mae Sot, 70 companies employ 90,000 workers of primarily Burmese nationality, who live on the factory site and are not authorised to leave it except to return to the border. It is difficult to estimate the drug consumption of this population, as there are no health centres within these company ghettos. However, it seems that the major type of drug use in the factories has shifted from heroin to methamphetamine. At Mae Sot, prostitutes make up an alternative community of consumers. Some 70 per cent are reported to use yaa baa. Lastly, the region is known to be the scene of a rather rare practice of injecting drugs into the penis which, according to popular belief, increases the man’s erectile capacity. In this case, however, methamphetamine is not one of the drugs commonly used.
34Ranong Province, whose resources are mostly based on fishing, has approximately 27,000 fishermen. Between 1994 and 1996 the fishing industry flourished and 10,000 Burmese refugees easily found work on board fleets or in the canning industries. Then came the 1997 financial crisis, and many fishing concerns foundered. The workers they employed who were addicts were forced to switch from using heroin to the less-costly yaa baa.
35Methamphetamine proved to be an excellent substitute, as it minimises feelings of deprivation. In Ranong, it is well known that ship owners force their crew to take a tablet every morning before the boats leave port. Though this practice may enhance the men’s capacity to work, it is not very popular as many report that using yaa baa lowers their sexual performance.
The North
36Whereas popular use of the drug category of opiates has almost disappeared in some central and southern regions of Thailand, opiates and ATS both remain in use in the north. For selected Chiang Mai neighbourhoods, available statistical data confirm that yaa baa use prevails among younger people, particularly those between ages 16 and 25, while opium consumers are generally older and range from 31 to 40 years of age. Among Chiang Mai users, opiates are generally injected. Yaa baa is as well, but not at rates that are noticeably higher than those found elsewhere in the country. Out of 1,366 drug consumers identified by a local health centre there, only 28 declared using this mode of administration for yaa baa. Yaa baa use can have direct financial benefit for those who take it if they are employed since it enables them to work harder and longer.
37The province of Chiang Rai has the highest number of drug users in Thailand. As in Chiang Mai, the consumption of drugs in Chiang Rai is segmented according to age, with yaa baa popular among those below 35 years and opium or heroin for those above. However, in certain high-altitude villages such as those where Akha tribes live, it is common to find older as well as younger users injecting methamphetamine.
38The district of Mae Sai is a refuge for ex-prostitutes who have returned from Bangkok. Many of them who have settled there made their “fortune” in the capital city, but had also acquired a drug habit there. In this province, heroin use is extremely rare. Yaa baa, on the other hand, is believed to be far less dangerous than heroin and is readily available in ethnic minority villages. The changeover from heroin to methamphetamine among users in Mae Sai began some ten years ago, to the point where heroin use is now almost unknown.
The Northeast
39Unlike the northern provinces, those in Thailand’s northeast have only recently shifted from heroin to methamphetamine. The rate of heroin use there continued to climb towards the end of the 1990s, but it appears that in mid-1999 a radical changeover occurred in which many users switched from heroin to methamphetamine.22 Currently, due to its price, heroin is reserved for more well-to-do sections of the population above 25 years of age. Younger people consume mainly yaa baa, which they report using during periods of intensive schoolwork as well as for more recreational purposes. They ingest it before outings with friends and inhale it for the pleasure it gives them. Tablets are generally sold by school drop-outs. The provinces of Khon Kaen, Maha Sarakham, and Kalasin have among the highest rates of yaa baa consumption in the country.
40In this same region, fishermen living in the provinces of Amnat Charoan and Surin constitute a second group particularly affected by methamphetamine use. Finally, unemployed youth, another “at risk” population, engage in frequent use of many types of drugs: heroin and opium if possible, methamphetamine if those are not available, and glue if they run short of methamphetamine. In regions of northeast Thailand near the Mekong river, youngsters reportedly cross the river in small boats to obtain ATS from Laos to avoid doing so in their own country, where the police are more vigilant and more feared.
The South
41The southern regions of Thailand have a fishing industry employing many thousands of refugees. Large areas there are also dedicated to rubber cultivation, necessitating abundant labour. The harvesting period for latex in the south signals a large seasonal influx of agricultural workers coming from northern parts of the country.
42At the regional level, Narathiwat Province has the south’s largest proportion of drug users, followed by the provinces of Pattani and Yala. However, for these areas the percentage of female users among populations consuming psychotropic substances is almost nil, or in any case, far lower than the national average. This factor is probably related to the social control exerted on women in these provinces where the majority of the population is Muslim.
43Another regional characteristic of note is that heroin is still a drug very much in demand. In Pattani province, heroin remains the most consumed product among users, which is unique in Thailand. In the extreme south, up to 80 per cent of drug users are HIV-infected. Sungai Golok, a town situated on the Malaysian border, has the highest rates of HIV/AIDS cases in the country. This phenomenon scares off younger people in the region from injecting drugs, causing them instead to swell the already-substantial ranks of Thai methamphetamine consumers.
Notes de bas de page
1Nualnoi Treerat, Noppanun Wannathepsakul and Daniel Ray Lewis, Global Study on Illegal Drugs: The Case of Bangkok (Bangkok: UNDCP/UNICRI, 2000) (preliminary version), p. 84.
2Pasuk Phongpaichit and Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, Corruption and Democracy in Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1994), p. 58.
3Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, Thailand — Economy and Politics (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press 1995), p. 336.
4The universality of the gift that gives rise to a return gift had been theorised by Marcel Mauss, “Essai surle don — Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques”, in Sociologie et Anthropologie (Paris: PUF, 1950), pp. 145–284. In Thailand, even offerings to the temple (tamboon) require something to be given back in exchange. Symbolically, at least, this transaction permits one to acquire merit.
5On electoral practices and the role of the jao pho, refer to Jean Baffie, “La politique en Thaïlande depuis la seconde guerre mondiale”, in Thaïlande contemporaine, ed. Dovert, pp. 83–142.
6Phongpaichit and Baker, Thailand — Economy and Politics, p. 336.
7Nualnoi Treerat et al., Global Study on Illegal Drugs.
8It should be noted again that the number of intermediaries is not fixed, as it is proportionate to the volume of the population living in a given geographical zone under traffickers’ control.
9It appears simple enough to procure large quantities of the drug in the northern part of the country. The transport is sometimes taken care of by small traffickers who decide to try their luck. This stage of the supply chain is particularly competitive, but can also be lucrative. Any “wages of fear” received for such ventures generally reflect the degree of risk taken. Independent operators lack inside connections to individuals in the police or Thai bureaucracy who could come to their help in case of arrest.
10The wholesaler remains loyal to the same supplier network, regardless of the prices proposed by independent dealers. His logic consists of ensuring the confidence of all those who surround him and preventing competition among them. This is typically the attitude of the jao pho, but not that of the medium retailer who gives less importance to his social “glory” and lives more in the shadows. However, the competition between independent dealers makes it possible to maintain relatively low prices of yaa baa.
11Commander Raymond Harel, member of the French Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Trafficking of Narcotics (OCTRIS) was a judiciary police officer deputised to the French Embassy in Thailand. In an interview with the authors on 3 July 2001, he reviewed the list of punishments for drug trafficking and possession in Thailand:
– Possession of more than 100g (around 1,000 tablets): life term or capital punishment.
– Possession of between 20g to 100g: five years in prison to life term, accompanied by a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 baht.
– Possession of less than 20g: from one year to 10 years in prison accompanied by a fine of 10,000 to 100,000 baht.
– Consumption without possession of drugs: from six months to ten years’ imprisonment, accompanied by a fine of 5,000 to 100,000 baht.
For this last category of crime, it is important to note that the law was amended in 1991. Most often, simple consumers are now only obliged to stay in one of the rehabilitation centres managed by the Ministry of Justice. This was done to encourage the addicts, who are considered patients and not criminals, to free themselves from their addiction by making them aware of the danger. After being examined by sworn officers, they can freely exit the centre without incurring a police record. However, in case of relapse they have to face other severe legal measures.
12Nualnoi Treerat et al., Global Study on Illegal Drugs, p. 97.
13Ibid., p. 98.
14“New Amphetamine Epidemic”, Bangkok Post, 16 Mar. 1997.
15Transparency International ranks Thailand in 60th place in the world in the index for perceived levels of corruption — on par with Ethiopia and Columbia. 10 to 20 per cent of Thailand’s annual budget (100 billion to 200 billion baht) is reportedly spent on bribes, according to “Corruption, le grand déballage”, Gavroche (a French monthly magazine published in Bangkok), Jan. 2001, pp. 33–8.
16“Yaa baa, la pilule qui rend fou”, Gavroche, July 2000.
17Interview on 11 July 2001.
18Denis Richard and Jean-Louis Senon, Dictionnaire des drogues, des toxicomanies et des dépendances (Paris: Larousse, 1999), p. 254. Ketamine is a veterinary and human anaesthetic and analgesic likely to produce hallucinogenic effects. Sold in the form of tablets under the “ecstasy” label, it is often associated with substances or medicines such as Ephedrine or Selegifine in the U.K. Known by the appellations Ket or Ketty, it is sniffed for its hallucinogenic effects at rave parties. Ketamine has been very often implicated in users’ near-death experiences under the name “Vitamin K” or “Special K”. The uncontrolled use of ketamine can cause loss of consciousness as well other mental disorders (anxiety, panic attacks), neurological disorders (temporary paralysis), and digestive disorders (nausea, vomiting). See the French Inter-ministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Drug Addictions (MILDT), at website reference http://www.drogues.gouv.fr.
19Thai Farmers Research Center (TFRC), “Amphetamines: Danger to Economy and Society”, report on 17 Mar. 1997. See http://www.tfrc.co.th/.
20“Yaa baa, la pilule qui rend fou”, Gavroche, July 2000.
21Aaron Peak, “Drug use and HIV/AIDS in Thailand in the Year 2000 — Asian Harm Reduction Network Report”, in Family Health International (Asia Regional Office, 2000), pp. 13–43.
22Ibid.
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