TY - JOUR

T1 - Thai War on Drugs

T2 - measuring changes in methamphetamine and other substance use by school students through matched cross sectional surveys

AU - Daosodsai, Paiboon

AU - Bellis, Mark A

AU - Hughes, Karen

AU - Hughes, Sara

AU - Daosodsai, Sopida

AU - Syed, Qutub

PY - 2007/8

Y1 - 2007/8

N2 - In 2003 the Thai government announced a radical shift in drug policy with the implementation of a War on Drugs. Although consequences of this controversial measure (e.g. drug dealer deaths) have received widespread attention relatively little work has evaluated changes in substance use. We used two anonymous representative samples of secondary school students to compare drug use in Northeast Thailand before (1998; n=4217) and after (2004/5; n=3489) the War on Drugs. Results indicate that reported levels of current illicit drug use reduced significantly between 1998 and 2004/5 (for methamphetamine from 4.2% to 0.9%). By examining trends in year of first methamphetamine use we identify that observed reductions in drug initiation are temporally consistent with the War on Drugs. However, while prevalence of alcohol use has also fallen, there was a three-fold increase in daily alcohol use. We suggest that this rise, combined with other negative impacts of 'wars' on drugs, means drug control requires a public health perspective that sees eliminating drug use as part of a wider strategy that has improvement in population health, not just drug prevention, as its core objective.

AB - In 2003 the Thai government announced a radical shift in drug policy with the implementation of a War on Drugs. Although consequences of this controversial measure (e.g. drug dealer deaths) have received widespread attention relatively little work has evaluated changes in substance use. We used two anonymous representative samples of secondary school students to compare drug use in Northeast Thailand before (1998; n=4217) and after (2004/5; n=3489) the War on Drugs. Results indicate that reported levels of current illicit drug use reduced significantly between 1998 and 2004/5 (for methamphetamine from 4.2% to 0.9%). By examining trends in year of first methamphetamine use we identify that observed reductions in drug initiation are temporally consistent with the War on Drugs. However, while prevalence of alcohol use has also fallen, there was a three-fold increase in daily alcohol use. We suggest that this rise, combined with other negative impacts of 'wars' on drugs, means drug control requires a public health perspective that sees eliminating drug use as part of a wider strategy that has improvement in population health, not just drug prevention, as its core objective.

KW - Adolescent

KW - Adult

KW - Cross-Sectional Studies

KW - Drug and Narcotic Control

KW - Female

KW - Government

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Methamphetamine

KW - Pilot Projects

KW - Public Policy

KW - Students

KW - Substance-Related Disorders

KW - Surveys and Questionnaires

KW - Thailand

KW - Journal Article

U2 - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.12.002

DO - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.12.002

M3 - Article

C2 - 17223280

VL - 32

SP - 1733

EP - 1739

JO - Addictive Behaviors

JF - Addictive Behaviors

SN - 0306-4603

IS - 8

ER -