Tackling the rising drug menace

Deputy police chief Pol Gen Adul Saengsingkaew shares part of his story _ from past to the present _ with KING-OUA LAOHONG after being the surprise choice to become secretary-general of the Narcotics Control Board.

Adul: Multi-pronged approach

Who approached you to be the NCB secretary-general?
Justice Minister Pracha Promnok contacted me two weeks before the transfer was proposed to the cabinet. He wants me to assist in drugs suppression because this government has made it a national agenda item. Drugs are rampant. According to a report by the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), the number of drug addicts in Thailand has risen from 400,000 in 2003 to 1.3 million now. If this is not tackled, people will suffer. I take up the job as it will help the country.
Why does Pol Gen Pracha trust you?
I started my service in the Northeast as a police sub-lieutenant in Na Kae district of Nakhon Phanom province when the communist insurgency prevailed. Then I was with the border patrol police before moving to Bangkok.
Pol Gen Pracha had been in the Northeast before he became the police chief. He may have been aware that I worked hard wherever I was deployed, so he assigned me to the task.
What is your first mission as NCB secretary-general?
The work of the ONCB has many dimensions. It must cooperate with other agencies. Today, anti-drug smuggling operations along the border are the responsibilities of the army and army task forces. Seventy per cent of drugs in the country are smuggled overland from neighbouring countries and smugglers are ethnic people living along the border.
Responsibility for drug suppression more than five kilometres from the border rests with the police.
The ONCB must oversee all the dimensions of drugs, including precursors and cooperation with neighbouring countries and other nations.
Today, heroin, opium, marijuana and methamphetamines are smuggled through ethnic group areas to the North. Marijuana, kratom leaves and opium come from Laos. Opium is produced in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Cocaine in Thailand comes from South America. The ONCB must find ways to block the drugs from reaching the Thai border and its tasks fall in many fields.
How will you solve the narcotics problem and rising drug addiction in Bangkok?
More than 50% of the drug addicts in Thailand are in Bangkok and major provinces. If we can cut their numbers and curb narcotic supplies by enforcing laws strictly, empowering communities to fight illicit drugs and encouraging addicts to undergo rehabilitation, the problem will be eased.
We must impose the asset-seizure law of the Anti-Money Laundering Office as drug dealers are afraid of losing their assets.
Will alleged extra-judicial killings in the war on drugs during the tenure of the Thaksin Shinawatra government recur in the term of the present government?
I was not involved then but I insist it will not recur with this government and the ONCB. I will focus on expanding legal action, especially seizing the assets of drug dealers, cutting off financial support of drug cartels including those in prisons, and protecting risk groups from drugs.
Will the ONCB look into connections between drug cartels and the insurgency in the far South?
There are connections among insurgents, drugs and smuggled goods. Police have found communications among drug traffickers in Hat Yai district, Sai Buri district of Pattani and Tak Bai district of Narathiwat. All the attacks in the region are in retaliation for arrests of drug traffickers.