Men with 1 meth pill arrested in Phuket’s zero-tolerance policy

Authorities have been cracking down on drugs and guns since the daycare centre massacre, enacting new restrictions and ramping up enforcement. Police in Phuket are now following a zero-tolerance policy and last night arrested three men for carrying as little as one meth pill.

The Thalang Police Chief in Phuket ordered the new zero-tolerance programme and instructed the police force to arrest all people found to have drugs, regardless of the quantity they were carrying. As a result, three men were arrested last night. Two of the men only had a single yaba pill on them.

A 31 year old local from the Pa Khlok area of Phuket was arrested with five meth pills in his possession. Two more men, aged 41 and 18, from Udon Thani were stopped by the Paraphan shop also in Pa Khlok. Each of them was found to be carrying just one meth pill. Under the new zero-tolerance directive, they were all three arrested.

Police brought the three men to Thalang Police Station to be prosecuted for drug charges under the zero-tolerance policy.

The crackdown comes after the daycare centre killer shot and killed 37 people including 24 children, his wife and his child. The killer had been booted from the police force on drug charges and had a court hearing just before going on his rampage. Other would-be copycat crimes were thwarted after, including a man stopped at a school with two guns and 17 meth pills.

The rash of drugs and violence led to immediate new regulations around firearms and school safety, as well as a focus on drugs that are believed to be the catalyst of the violence.