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Phuket Gazette is reporting the following

A teenager from New Zealander is stranded in Phuket after being arrested for possession of diazepam pills without a prescription.

A high-ranking source in the Phuket Public Health Office (PPHO) admitted his department permitted pharmacies to sell the drugs, but only in "small" amounts.

“It is illegal to possess prescription drugs without a prescription, but in Phuket we’re not so strict as this is a tourist place,” he said. “We grant permission to pharmacies to sell the drugs, but they need to report to the PPHO first.”

Phuket: Valium bust strands Kiwi teen in Phuket

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BobR

That article seems quite evasive about the quantity she had. There is a big difference between buying a few for personal use and possessing or moving large quantities.

pickel

From the link:

malako

Fuckin' hell. Must be quiet for the boys in brown to have to stoop this low...

BobR

"A package" can be anything from a single blister pack (10 pills for personal use) to a whole bag of blister packs or bottles (100's for sales or distribution). It's either deliberate vagueness or poor writing.

killerbees

The times that I've bought it at a pharmacy in Thailand (I really dislike flying), it was no questions asked, couple hundred baht for a ten-pill blister pack.

malako

You would think the amount would be stated, as having a dozen or two to take back to new Zealand is far different than taking a thousand or so - although you would wonder how they could make "the crime" stick, given "the high ranking source" has admitted that anybody can buy it over the counter.

By the sounds of it they are detaining the kid anyway, and won't let him leave the country. I thought they brought in measures recently which allowed people to leave the country while small crimes like this were processed?

Bung

I always try and get a couple of Zanex for the long flights and it has been easy in the past but the last time I was treated like a junkie. Maybe they are cracking down.

BobR

I buy them for the same reason; it's not so much that I dislike flying (I fly small airplanes) it's just that the 15 hour flights in economy are pure hell and sleeping through that is almost as good as a business class upgrade.

killerbees

Exactly. One of them main reasons I dislike flying is the discomfort factor. I generally fly cattle class. It doesn't leave me with much wiggle room. I'd much rather sleep through the whole experience. Unfortunately, I can't seem to sleep on planes or buses. I don't know if it's the fact that there are a lot of people around, or that I'm in a chair. I've tried actual sleeping pills but they don't work, just make me groggy and miserable. Xanex or Valium, on the other hand, put me right to sleep for hours at a time. They also conveniently help with my flight anxiety. Only ever take them when traveling though I know some people do eat them like candy.

Beadle

They can do anything they want really, especially to someone like a tourist with no contacts or backup in Thailand.

BobR

They would have no problem making the crime "stick" and neither would any of our Western Countries, and tourist or lack of "backup" has nothing to do with it. If the law forbids possession without a prescription, the fact that "everyone else is doing it" or "a lot of stores sell them over the counter" is completely worthless as a defense and nothing more than an inadmissible opinion if you said it in a courtroom. Fairness and justice have nothing to do with each other, particularly when silly drug laws are concerned.

kmart

Yep. The sleeping tablets (especially) are hard to get over the counter these days. They are / were apparently an increasingly-common method of suicide amongst Thais.

blackgang

What is this "without a prescription" shit.
I have been to a lot of pharmacies here and bought Valium and Xanex and also use Lorazapam every nite anymore.
I went in and asked a druggist about some Valium, he handed me a card of 10-50 mg. I said I didn't need that heavy, so he gave me a card of 5 mg. I took one that night and it made me mean as catshit, so next night I too 1/2 and same thing so I threw em in the trash.
I have taken Xanex twice, it seems OK. but Ativan (US Lorazapam) 1 mg is what i take on a dr advise and I sleep like a baby,, and only prescript you will ever see here is the slip the Dr. gives you to go to the cashier and get what he asks for and pay your bill, no such thing as a prescription as far as I know.

Who has seen a meds bottle with your name on the label with your Dr. name,,dosing directions and a prescript number and date, and a refill date??
I sure as hell have never seen one.

chitown

BS BobR - it was 10 and we all know it. If it was 100's the BIB would have it laid out with pics and finger pointing going on. The truth of the matter is that the thieving bastids aka the Thai police are suffering in the pocketbook from a next to nothing high tourist season. They can't support all their mia nois, illegal lotteries, and other illegal activities with tourism lower than its been in a couple decades.

Wayne Kerr

Valium is lightweight stuff, must have been a fair few I reckon, unless she was dishing them out to friends needing some help after a night on yaa baa etc or was caught up in one of them night club raids.

Beadle

Got Valium in the first pharmacy I tried yesterday, 50 for 200thb.

malako

I used to pay 5bht fir the 5ml yellow ones and 10bht for the blue 10ml ones. Could usually buy them by the dozen - not in cards, they had gigantic plastic jars of them.

I think the reason they are now considered suspicious is because yaba users use Valium to come down - and everyone knows, you should NEVER mix uppers and downers..

Bung

Jesus, I had a hell of a time getting anything for the long haul flights I regularly do

A zanex dropped after dinner gets me 6 odd hours sleep. Just great. I slept 8 hours once. Coiuldn't believe it!

meow

I remember detoxing off the booze a few years ago in Bangkok. The pharmacies wouldn't give me any valium or Xanax. I then went to a private hospital that said 'no good to take this'.

End result, I went back on the bottle. Great help that was!

FarangRed

what if they were mixing Valium with coca cola? don't they get a buzz out of that?

dirtydog

PHUKET: A 17-year-old New Zealander arrested in Patong for possession of diazepam pills remains stranded in Phuket, where local police admit they are not seeking to arrest the seller of the drugs.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police source told the Gazette his team asked the teenager where he bought the pills, but the youth declined to answer.

“He had the right to say nothing when asked a question he didn’t want to answer,” the source said. “But he accepted the charges against him.”

“Normally, if we know where a suspect bought Valium we check the shop,” he said. “If they don’t have a license to sell the drug or they’ve sold it without a prescription, we arrest them as well.”

The young Kiwi, due to appear in Juvenile Court tomorrow, cannot be named under Thai law. He has confessed to the charges against him.

In the early hours of December 7, he got on the back of a motorcycle taxi with nine diazepam pills, more commonly known as Valium, stashed in his pocket.

When Kathu Police officers saw the pair riding over a section of sidewalk on the Patong beach road, they stopped and searched the pair and arrested the young Kiwi.

More than five weeks after he was originally due to fly home, he remains in Phuket on bail.

“We’re trying to hurry up the process for him because we understand that he has to go back to school,” the source said.

Recently released statistics from the Phuket Provincial Police show this was the only arrest for diazepam possession in Phuket in 2009.

Over the same period, police seized 253 pills and 8 grams of alprazolam (trade name Xanax), arresting 18 people.

While such drugs are difficult to obtain without a prescription in most parts of Thailand, they remain readily available in tourist centers such as Patong.

High-ranking sources in the Phuket Provincial Health Office said shops registered with their office to sell category four drugs are allowed to do so on a discretionary basis and in small amounts – typically 10 pills or fewer.

Such shops must have a license and most have a Thai-language sign indicating that such prescription medications are available there over the counter.

Other big sellers in such shops include erectile dysfunction drugs like sildenafil citrate (Viagra) and tadalafil (Cialis).

Drug arrests in Thailand carry stiff penalties for adults, but the Juvenile Court system is based more on rehabilitation than punishment. First time offenders are seldom incarcerated for small seizures unless they are associated with violent crimes.

malako

What a fucking joke. Locked up and held prisoner for 9 valiums!
Meanwhile every second taxi driver and bar girl are visibly out of their trees on yaba...

Thailand - you are a disgrace!!

malako

so why are they still holding this kid prisoner?

Trying to sqeeze as much money from her mummy and daddy as you can??

The real criminals here are the thai police..

blackgang

Should have went to AA and explained your problem, there usually someone around that can get er done, even if no more that some old member that remembers how it used to be done before doctors would even look at us alkies,, he could have brought you down without you dying.