“I first began taking medication after I was 15,” says 49-year-old Prapat Sukkeaw. “I smoked marijuana, nevertheless it was laced with heroin. I felt like I used to be floating, and it meant that I may overlook about all the issues that I confronted as a teen. It was a good looking feeling.”
Prapat Sukkeaw is certainly one of an estimated 57,000 individuals who at present injects medication in Thailand. His medication of alternative, marijuana and heroin, replicate a interval in Thailand’s current historical past when each unlawful narcotics have been the principle stimulants being trafficked out of the storied Golden Triangle, a distant and considerably inaccessible area which incorporates northern Thailand in addition to Myanmar and Laos.
![49-year-old Prapat Sukkeaw has used drugs since the age of 15. 49-year-old Prapat Sukkeaw has used drugs since the age of 15.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/10-05-2023-UN-News-Bangkok-01.jpg/image1440x560cropped.jpg)
UN Information/Daniel Dickinson
49-year-old Prapat Sukkeaw has used medication because the age of 15.
Employed by a non-governmental group (NGO), he has now and again needed to surrender heroin as a result of strain from household and pals. Now, he has acknowledged that, even when he admits to being addicted, taking medication “is my choice and my proper”. He has now began taking the artificial drug methamphetamine, as heroin has turn out to be progressively dearer.
His focus has moved from abstaining from medication to residing with the unintended effects and managing the potential hurt of their extended use, for instance by not sharing needles.
Like all Thai residents, Mr. Sukkeaw has entry to common well being care, however he discovered that as an individual who makes use of medication, he was stigmatized and discriminated in opposition to by well being care employees. He was referred to Ozone, an NGO based mostly in a suburb of the Thai capital, Bangkok.
Ozone’s purpose is to cut back the well being and social impacts of drug habit, selling abstinence, but in addition supporting shoppers who need to stick with it utilizing and making certain that they’ve entry to the well being providers they require.
![A hepatitis C test is prepared for a client at Ozone. A hepatitis C test is prepared for a client at Ozone.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/10-05-2023-UN-News-Bangkok-05.jpg/image1440x560cropped.jpg)
UN Information/Daniel Dickinson
A hepatitis C take a look at is ready for a consumer at Ozone.
“Our shoppers who journey from round Thailand to Ozone welcome our non-judgmental method,” stated Ngammee Verapun, the centre’s director, himself an individual who makes use of a number of medication regularly. “We’re a group which values all individuals. We’re client-centred and provide peer help treating everybody equally, irrespective of their background.”
Ozone provides a wide range of providers together with needle exchanges and HIV testing in addition to PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) which reduces the danger of getting HIV from intercourse or injecting medication. It additionally companions with Dreamlopments, a hepatitis C service supplier which provides built-in healthcare freed from cost. Hepatitis C is a viral liver an infection unfold by sharing needles. Its actions are supported by UNODC, though a funding shortfall has meant that the centre has needed to shut a lot of its outreach providers in different elements of Thailand.
![Karen Peters, UNODC. Karen Peters, UNODC.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/10-05-2023-UN-News-Bangkok-08.jpg/image3000x3000.jpg)
UN Information/Daniel Dickinson
Karen Peters, UNODC.
From punitive to progressive drug legal guidelines
Traditionally, Thailand has severely punished individuals who have damaged strict drug legal guidelines. Nonetheless, since a change within the regulation in 2021, the authorized system has shifted in direction of rehabilitation for individuals who use medication.
Talking forward of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, marked yearly 26 June, Karen Peters, UNODC’s Bangkok-based regional medication and well being focus, stated: “Now persons are allowed options. It isn’t a perfect alternative, however they’re given the selection to attend a therapy facility or go to jail.”
The regulation is progressive in different methods, as hurt discount is particularly highlighted as an goal, which, in line with Karen Peters, permits organizations like Ozone “to operate throughout the confines of the authorized and justice system”.
It is usually serving to to shift “the narrative round individuals who use medication in Thailand from being socially marginalized”, she stated.
Tackling stigmatization
The stigmatization of people that take medication nonetheless continues, however in line with Dr. Phattarapol Jungsomjatepaisal, the director of the Nationwide Dependancy Remedy and Rehabilitation Committee within the Ministry of Public Well being, the brand new laws implies that extra “well being service suppliers are being skilled to behave in a non-stigmatizing method”.
He says that the response from individuals who use medication has been “good” as there’s a recognition that finally, they need to obtain higher care in hospitals and well being centres beneath Thailand’s common well being protection system, whereas persevering with to have the choice to entry providers in community-led centres like Ozone.
HIV and hepatitis C
One main concern stays the excessive prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C amongst individuals who inject medication in a rustic the place HIV charges are in any other case lowering. In Thailand, an estimated eight per cent of drug customers have HIV, roughly 3,800 individuals.
The speed of hepatitis C, at 42 per cent, is “very horrifying”, in line with Dr. Patchara Benjarattanaporn, the nation director of UNAIDS, the UN company main the worldwide effort to finish AIDS as a public well being menace by 2030.
![An Ozone Foundation client receives hepatitis C counseling. An Ozone Foundation client receives hepatitis C counseling.](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/Collections/Embargoed/13-06-2023-UN-News-Bangkok-01.jpg/image770x420cropped.jpg)
UN Information/Daniel Dickinson
Regardless of ongoing issues concerning the well being outcomes for individuals who use medication, Dr. Benjarattanaporn believes that Thailand may turn out to be a mannequin for the area’s international locations going through related challenges.
“The brand new narcotic regulation and the community-led side of therapy for drug customers provides hope that Thailand can management circumstances, and this can be a improvement that different international locations are watching,” he stated.
Again at Ozone, one consumer is receiving counseling about PrEP and HIV prevention, and one other is present process a hepatitis take a look at. The peer help stays a key ingredient in attracting individuals to make use of its providers, and it’s now hoped that the brand new laws will result in much less discrimination and can allow others to entry related providers by means of extra authorities well being amenities.