Methamphetamine pills or yaba is often crushed then smoked. /CGTN Photo
It's late morning, Aun* just woke up. He walks down the stairs and begins to prepare his breakfast. His diet today and every day for the past 15 years comes in the form of a small red pill. He crushes it up, places it carefully on a small piece of foil, lights the lighter and starts to inhale. Five minutes later, he smiles and says, "I'm ready to start the day."
Aun* needs six to eight methamphetamine pills, or yaba, each day — a habit that has become more expensive than what he earns. But he says he needs it, otherwise he cannot function.
"The first thing I do in every morning is find enough money to buy drugs. I don't care much about food. I need drugs to energize me, to give me strength to get through the day."
For Aun* this is a love affair that keeps on giving. Yaba is everywhere, cheaper and purer than ever before.
On Wednesday though, millions of these candy colored pills are in an industrial estate, just outside of Bangkok, waiting to be destroyed.
Thailand is experiencing a deepening drug crisis due to the explosion of meth crossing the border region into the country. /CGTN Photo
It's Thailand's annual drug incineration, as 640 million U.S. dollars' worth of narcotics pile up — heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and crystal meth. But more than all the others combined, methamphetamine pills. Boxes and boxes of it. It is the number one public enemy in the country.
When it comes to a favorable geography required for a thriving drug trade, Southeast Asia has been particularly blessed. The "Golden Triangle," straddling the border regions of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, is both a safe haven and a distribution hub for drug cartels that are spewing meth into Thailand.
All that's left to monetize the drug is transporting it to drug hungry markets of Southeast Asia and the rest of the world.
Experts believe that law enforcement confiscate only 10 percent of total drug production in this region. All the drugs burned today are only a drop in the ocean compared to the enormous wave of synthetic drugs surging into the Thailand every day.
Inside a Thai government warehouse that serves as a pit-stop for drugs intercepted by authorities before they get destroyed at the 49th annual drug incineration. /CGTN Photo
Thai authorities like to highlight the large quantities of drugs being confiscated as bigger, multi-million-dollar shipments are becoming more frequent. But it's also a testament to meth labs on overdrive. Newer machines, cheaper chemicals and drug precursors enable mass production at lower costs.
Wichai Chaimongkol, deputy chief of the Office of Narcotics Control Board agrees that drug lords are becoming more sophisticated in their manufacturing process. "Meth can be produced all the time, since it is chemical based, not plant based. Shipments are more frequent and their quantity is increasing," he said.
All together, 16,467 kg of narcotics were destroyed, of that 12,369 kg were methamphetamine pills. /CGTN Photo
On the streets, prices are plunging — evidence of a huge oversupply from the meth lords who have slashed costs by using cheaper chemicals and raw materials. A decade ago, a yaba table was around seven U.S. dollars, now around two U.S. dollars.
Addicts, like, Aun* are rejoicing. Yaba is the drug of choice for laborers like him. These small colorful pills gives users a burst of energy, allowing many, particularly those employed in demanding labor, to feel charged for hours at a time.
"These days yaba is cheap so I take more each day, I used to use three or four pills. Now I use up to eight each day," Aun* said.
And as these small pills continue to wreck havoc on society, visions of a new approach in tackling this drug crisis are becoming as desperate as an addict in search of their next fix.
(* Names have been changed to protect identity.)