Thai Rehab Temple Abbot Arrested For 'meth Medicine'

An abbot at a Thai temple treating drug addicts has been arrested for selling patients traditional medicine laced with methamphetamine following an undercover sting operation, authorities said Friday

BANGKOK, Sept 8 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 08th Sep, 2017 ) : An abbot at a Thai temple treating drug addicts has been arrested for selling patients traditional medicine laced with methamphetamine following an undercover sting operation, authorities said Friday.

Thailand has a major methamphetamine addiction problem but government-run rehabilitation centres are woefully underfunded, so temples often step in, fuelled by the principle that good deeds build karma.

However, they are not regulated and often use controversial methods -- one monk-led centre famously encourages patients to vomit every day by drinking a secret tincture of herbs.

Investigators said they sent an undercover officer into Khao Sripermsawang temple in central Nakhon Nayok province to pose as a drug addict after receiving tip-offs from former patients.

The small vials of medicine, sold as an addiction cure, cost 100 Baht ($3) each and drug users were charged 500 baht to enter the rehab programme. "We checked and found that the traditional medicine was mixed with methamphetamine," Sitthisak Watjanarat, a senior official at Thailand's Office of Narcotics Control board, told AFP.