Showing 91 - 100 of 166
Myanmar's shirked duty
News, Editorial, Published on 08/10/2018
» Last Thursday, police arrested two men in Ayutthaya for possession of drugs. They were driving a pickup with 700 one-kilogramme bags of crystal methamphetamine, a so-called recreational drug without medical or social value.
No rush to pass drug bill
News, Editorial, Published on 01/09/2018
» A string of opposing voices have been heard this past week over the Drug Bill which, if passed into law, will govern the manufacturing, selling, import, registration and advertisement of medicines by the private sector in Thailand.
Cops in dock over rape row
News, Editorial, Published on 31/08/2018
» Once again, Koh Tao -- Thailand's top tourist destination in Surat Thani -- has attracted global attention, albeit not in the way Thai authorities would have hoped for.
Facebook's risky game
News, Editorial, Published on 29/08/2018
» An official mission of the UN Human Rights Council has issued a properly scathing attack on the persecution of Rohingya Muslims. It has accused the top Myanmar generals of genocide and recommended they somehow be brought to "a competent court" for trial. The three-member committee attacked Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi for her failure to stop the criminal military actions and charged she abetted and aided them.
Debating the death penalty
News, Editorial, Published on 20/06/2018
» The Corrections Department has opened the raw wound of capital punishment once again.
Failure of Alpha probe
News, Editorial, Published on 29/05/2018
» One of the worst and most costly fraud cases in recent memory was wrongly declared over last week. The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) brought its investigation of the purchase of Alpha-6 fake narcotics detectors to a close. Astoundingly, this relatively simple case took the self-styled graft busters 10 years to conclude. The announcement that formally closed the books on the case echoed the supreme failure to tackle the case forthrightly, investigate honestly, act transparently and, finally, identify and bring accountability and the law to bear on those responsible.
Tiny step in drug reform
News, Editorial, Published on 23/05/2018
» The government's approval of a minor regulation change in the anti-drugs law is a step in the right direction. Both the cabinet and the prime minister's Office of Narcotics Control Board announced last week they support the change, which will allow human testing of medical marijuana. Testing of possible positive use of cannabis has been under way for some time, but results are theoretical, based only on laboratory tests including on animals.
A failure to protect
News, Editorial, Published on 10/05/2018
» The past week has seen extremely troubling revelations about the huge trade in two harmful items. These are cosmetics made from sub-standard or even deadly materials, and so-called dietary and "health" tablets with shady origins. This issue grew out of a probe into celebrity endorsements of questionable products. It is now an important criminal case involving hundreds of possible felons and the four known deaths their products probably has caused.
End brutality in our homes
News, Editorial, Published on 26/04/2018
» If a man's brutal attack on his girlfriend had not been broadcast live on Facebook on Sunday, the whole story would probably have ended quite differently. There might have been no intervention either by observers or the police. And the 21-year-old victim, Kuldara Yeesaman, may have ended up being forced to suffer longer while being forced to stay silent, just as many other Thai women do.
Time to stop the torture
News, Editorial, Published on 25/04/2018
» Two horror stories from the justice system point once again the urgent need for intervention and reform. Two men are dead in separate incidents. Corrections officials admit that a prisoner in the Samut Prakan Central Prison was horrifically beaten in a "discipline session" shortly before his death was reported. In Buri Ram, meanwhile, a man arrested for poaching -- and denied bail -- died from what medical examiners said were spleen injuries and "massive" blood loss.