Speed pills to invade Thailand

Speed pills to invade Thailand

THAILAND: Thailand's army is braced for a record influx of up to
one billion "speed" pills to be trafficked across the Myanmar
border next year, defense ministry sources said on Sunday.

Despite a "war on drugs" launched last year to curb an
alarming addiction crisis in the kingdom, the flow of drugs is
tipped to rise substantially from 700 million pills believed to
have been trafficked in 2002.

"Each of the one billion pills is worth 100 baht, so the
intake will be worth 100 billion baht (US$2.3 billion) -- that's
a big number," a defense ministry official said.

The Third Army, which patrols the northern border with Myanmar
where vast amounts of drugs including speed and heroin are
manufactured by ethnic armies, reportedly said it planned to step
up its offensive against the traffickers. -- AFP