ONCB secretary-general Sirinya Sitdhichai revealed on Saturday that the narcotics problem in the far South was worse than in other regions of the country. He said urine tests on the new draftees from the region found traces of drug use in 30 per cent of the conscripts, compared to other regions where it was around 10 per cent.

“We found that the youth in the South often use amphetamine and kratom leaves. The amphetamine pills usually come from neighbouring countries through the northern border, which are then transported to the South, while most kratom leaves are imported from Malaysia where kratom is legal,” Sirinya said.

Thailand has had a ban on the growing of kratom for more than 70 years.

“What we are even more concerned about is the relation between the drug problems in the South and the insurgency. However, we cannot prove a direct relationship between these two problems, but we found that the drug dealers usually used the chaotic situation during attacks to transport drugs and in some cases the drug dealers even sponsored the insurgent activities.”

He said the ONCB was drafting a cooperative strategic plan to tackle the drug problem in the deep South with the National Security Council and the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4, which will then be sent to the Cabinet for consideration within this month.

Meanwhile, he said the subcommittee studying solutions to the problem of drug use was considering the option of legalising the use of kratom leaves as herbal medicine. However, there will still be strict control on the planting of kratom trees. Every household would be allowed to grow only two kratom plants with use of the leaves restricted to medical purposes.