Thai temple: A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks as all of them 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, according to district official Boonlert Thintapthai. He said the monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation.
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No merit making for now
“The temple is now empty of monks and nearby villagers are concerned they cannot do any merit-making,” he said. In merit-making worshippers donate food to monks as a good deed. To vercome this crisis, more monks will be sent to the temple to allow villagers to practise their religious obligations, Boonlert said.
The raid were part of a national campaign to tackle drug trafficking.
Reports said police administered urine tests on the four monks. They were removed from the temple after all four men fail. It was not clear what drew police attention to the temple.
Major transit country for drugs
Thailand has become a major transit country for methamphetamine that is smuggled from Myanmar’s troubled Shan state via Laos, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
On the street, pills sell for less than 20 baht (around $0.50).
Authorities across Southeast Asia have made record meth seizures in recent years.
Last month, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha launched a campaign against drugs after a former police officer, dismissed from the force for methamphetamine possession, killed 37 people during a shooting at a nursery.
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