Page 5 - IAV Digital Magazine #559

Every Monk In Thai
Temple Defrocked
After Testing
Positive For Meth
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left with- out monks after all of its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official said Tuesday.
Four monks, including an abbot, at a temple in Phetchabun province's Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, district official Boonlert Thintapthai told AFP.
The monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, the official said.
"The temple is now empty of monks and nearby vil- lagers are con- cerned they cannot do any merit-mak- ing," he said. Merit-making involves worship- pers donating food to monks as a good deed.
Boonlert said more monks will be sent to the temple to allow villagers to practice their reli- gious obligations.
Thailand is a major transit country for methamphetamine flooding in from Myanmar's trou- bled Shan state via Laos, accord- ing to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
On the street, meth pills, called Yaba, sell for less than 20 baht
(around $0.50).
"Meth and particu- larly Yaba can be easily found in every corner of [Thailand] — sup- ply is up every- where, and at this point a tablet is cheaper than a beer," UNODC's Jeremy
Douglas told Thai Inquirer.
Authorities across Southeast Asia and around the globe have made record meth seizures in recent months.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine