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. The temple's abbot, 61-year-old Opas Thammachot, was promptly arrested on Thursday for drug trafficking alongside a lay temple worker. Sitthisak said the abbot and the worker both denied the charge, adding they said they were baffled at how methamphetamine had got into the medicine. Foreign addicts also flock to the country's huge variety of rehab centres, from glitzy five-star resorts to village temples.

Source: The Nation Bangkok September 08, 2017 08:47 UTC