Drug reform gets a push

Editorial
The Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Saturday, April 21, 2018

New plans for treatment of drug addicts and abusers are a welcome step on the way to badly needed drug reform. The steps announced last week by the chief of the prime ministers Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), Sirinya Sitdhichai, may make it possible to begin rehabilitation instead of criminal treatment. As welcome as the new programme is, it is still only a tentative step towards what is needed. It is time for bold steps and a new outlook on the problem. Because the five-decade "war on drugs" is such an obvious failure, it is vital to find and employ new methods. Sitdhichai has put in motion what he is too grandly calling "a comprehensive drug rehabilitation programme". In fact, the new policy brings only some small, if highly important changes.