Mom with HIV turns dealer

Mom with HIV turns dealer

BANGKOK (AP): Police have arrested a woman who turned to amphetamine-trafficking to feed her three children.

Police said yesterday that Ratchada Chenchom had lost her factory job in Lamphun, in northern Thailand, after her employers and co-workers discovered she was HIV-positive.

Ratchada, who said she had contracted the disease from her husband, who died three years ago, said she had no choice but to turn to selling amphetamines to support their children.

Ratchada was arrested in possession of 279 amphetamine tablets, police said. Amphetamine use is a mushrooming social problem in Thailand. The government recently stiffened the penalties to be as severe as those for heroin trafficking, which can bring the death penalty.