Thai police believe massive drug thefts of legal cold pills from state hospitals are destined for Burma or Laos as base ingredients used to manufacture amphetamine tablets.
The Public Health Ministry said it investigations showed that up to 48.32 million cold pills have been diverted in a trans-border drug scheme with the help of state hospital employees, according to local newspaper reports.
Authorities ordered an inspection of 875 hospitals nationwide, and Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri suspended the distribution of cold pills containing pseudoephedrine over the counter and at hospitals.
Disciplinary charges have been laid against seven hospital directors and pharmacists since the scandal broke, according to reports.
“Pseudoephedrine is not an illicit drug. It is good and effective and affordable for colds and sinus problems,” Food and Drug Administration narcotics control division chief Prapon Angtrakul said. "But we cannot hand it out over the counter because some drug gangs and professionals are abusing its formula. If the problem continues, we may have to spend more on a different medicine to treat a simple ailment."
He said health professionals were involved in the purchase of large amounts of cold pills that were diverted from hospitals in a trans-border smuggling scheme.
FDA secretary-general Pipat Yingsere said of the 48.32 million tablets seized in 40 cases launched by police since 2006, up to 36 million were smuggled from South Korea.
On February 16, Mizzima reported Burmese police found an estimated 8.7 million amphetamine tablets and assorted weapons in several house in Tachilek Township on the northern Thai-Bruma border.
The Tachileik police said that the drugs were probably going to be sent to Thailand.
In a 2011 World Drug Report report, the UN anti-narcotics agency sounded the alarm over soaring production and consumption or methamphetamine pills and
warned that Burma has become a prime source of synthetic narcotic pills.
A record 15.8 tons of methamphetamine pills were seized in 2009, the latest year for available figures, up by more than one third from 2008.
Most of the drugs came from or were seized in Burma, which the U.N. called “one of the primary sources of methamphetamine pills in Southeast Asia.”
The Golden Triangle of Laos, Burma and Thailand are at the center of the drug trade. The U.N. said that governments and experts in Asia had reported a significant increase in use of amphetamine-type stimulants over the past year, particularly of methamphetamine.
