A cocktail to avoid

[Rogie]

Leaf for Drug Cocktail Adds to Thailand’s Woes

 

 

As the violence-plagued provinces of southern Thailand continue to struggle with a shadowy insurgency, the restive region is battling a new enemy: a drug cocktail made from a local leaf that is seducing the young.

 

The drug, kratom, is far less debilitating than the methamphetamines and heroin that are trafficked through the area. But its rampant use is enough of a problem that it has caught the attention of the Thai government, and led to increased attempts to stop the trafficking.

“It’s an epidemic,” said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, the associate dean at Prince of Songkla University in the southern city of Pattani. “Kratom use has spread all over the place.”

 

Kratom is a tree that grows in abundance in the tropical jungles here in the south. Chewing the red-veined leaves of the tree, which is in the same family as the coffee tree, was until recently a fading tradition among farmers and rubber tappers who sought an energy boost and stamina under the oppressive sun.

 

But the spreading popularity of the much stronger narcotic cocktail — typically made by boiling the leaves and adding cough syrup, Coca-Cola and ice — has created a sharp increase in demand for the leaf. Young people sneak into protected forests and smuggle out duffel bags stuffed with the feather-shaped leaves.

 

So what can the Thai authorities do to combat this?

 

So far, efforts to stop the flow of kratom have fallen short because, local authorities say, the fines for offenders are too lenient.

 

In recent months, the Thai police have also stepped up their campaign of cutting down trees across the country. But this has created tensions between law enforcement and those charged with protecting the environment.

 

The largest collection of kratom trees is in a protected forest in nearby Satun Province.

Hundreds of kratom trees thrive in a scenic valley surrounded by limestone cliffs, a spot accessible on foot by following a path that travels along a river and then passes through a large cave.

 

The authorities have ordered the trees felled, but the guardians of the forest are balking.

Narong Kaewsen, a park ranger at the Satun reserve, said destroying the trees, which are spread over about 30 acres, would require large amounts of herbicide. “At the very least it will harm the water, animals and plants,” Mr. Narong said. “They will also die.”

 

http://www.nytimes.c...?pagewanted=all

[kokopelli]

An other cocktail to avoid is one laced with DEET. Here is an article about the death of two young Canadian women in Phuket about a year ago. DEET, an insect repellent, apparently is used in some type of cocktail to enhance its effects but, in this case, an overdose. I found this post by Dolly on BahtStop .

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/08/31/montreal-sisters-die-thailand-insecticide.html

[Rogie]

What happened to those poor Canadian girls was tragic. Of course we can never know exactly how they suffered, but going by accounts of the state of their bodies it must have been horrific.

[Rogie]

Teenager's stomach removed after drinking cocktail

 

A teenager has had emergency surgery to remove her stomach after drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen.

 

The 18-year-old is reported to have become breathless and developed severe stomach pain before being taken to Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

 

Officers say she would have died if doctors had not performed the operation.

 

Doctor John Ashton, director of public health for Cumbria, said: "This girl is the victim of an irresponsible alcohol industry that's now competing on gimmicks.

 

"Alcohol itself is a very dangerous thing if improperly handled and liquid nitrogen is a toxic chemical. It destroys human tissue."

 

If swallowed, liquid nitrogen can cause cold burns to the mouth, throat and stomach, killing the tissue.

 

As the frozen vapour hits the stomach it rapidly warms, releasing large volumes of air which can burst the stomach.

 

Doctors performed emergency surgery to remove the stomach, an operation known as a total gastrectomy.

 

During the operation the stomach is cut out and the remaining two tubes to and from the stomach, the oesophagus and the small bowel, are connected.

 

People who have had a gastrectomy will still be able to lead a normal life and eat and drink regular food but they will need to eat smaller amounts and take vitamin supplements to make sure they get enough nourishment.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19866191

[Guest fountainhall]

Whilst this was not cocktail related, there is a clear link and we should not forget the “Death Hotel” in Chiang Mai, the Downtown Inn near the Night Bazaar, where three overseas guests and a tour guide died in mysterious circumstances over a two-week period early last year. The Disease Control Department’s probe ruled that the most likely cause of three of the deaths was related to pesticides. This might have been as a result of bulk pesticide having been insufficiently diluted.

 

Now the "Death Hotel" is being pulled down, although the owners plan to erect a new one on the site.

 

http://www.huffingto...-_n_927973.html

http://www.bangkokpo...f-a-death-hotel

[Bob]

Yea, the "death hotel" was a big news item up here last year and all kinds of rumors were swirling around as to why the place wasn't investigated more or immediately shut down. Unfortunately, with Thai journalism (read: lack of any follow-up let alone investigative journalism), the public will really never know what happened.

 

I would note that tissue samples were shared with some government agency in the US and also with the UN's outfit....but, again, I've never saw a newspaper article that definitively reported on any findings of note by either of those outfits.

[Guest fountainhall]

On checking, I was rather surprised to see the Bangkok Post did do a follow up in May. The cause of death seems to be relatively clear: chlorpyrifos poisoning.

An independent investigation has found traces of a potentially lethal toxin in the Chiang Mai hotel where a New Zealand tourist became fatally ill.

 

Traces of chlorpyrifos, which is used to kill bedbugs but has been banned in other countries, have been found in samples that the New Zealand current affairs television show 60 Minutes had independently tested, The Dominion Post reported.

 

Sarah Carter, 23, died on Feb 6, and her friends Emma Langlands and Amanda Eliason became gravely ill while they were on holiday in the Downtown Inn Hotel in Chiang Mai . . . A UN scientist, Ron McDowall, said there was a strong likelihood Carter died from excessive exposure to the substance, which causes identical symptoms to those suffered by the trio as well as several other tourists who died after staying at the hotel.

 

Thai authorities have maintained the deaths were a coincidence.

 

Chiang Mai's head of public health Dr Surasing Visaruthrat also investigated the insecticide theory.

 

"I'm not a specialist," he said. "But it's possible that they mixed together the wrong chemicals." The fact traces of chlorpyrifos were found three months after Carter's death and after the room was cleaned suggested the concentration was high.

 

"I think she has been killed by an overzealous sprayer who's been acting on the instructions of the hotel owner to deal with bed bugs," Mr McDowall said.

 

Even a slight mistake in the dosage of chlorpyrifos, which has been banned for indoor use in many countries, could be lethal, he said.

 

Mr McDowall checked his theory with other experts from New Zealand and Italy, who supported his belief.

 

"Their reaction was it's quite clear it's chlorpyrifos poisoning; the symptoms are the same, the pathology is the same and the proxy indicates that the chemical was present in the room," he said.

 

http://www.bangkokpo...-found-in-hotel

[kokopelli]

Thanks for posting that FH. I always wondered what was the cause of the deaths in CM. Someone must have really doused the beds and linens in those rooms to cause death so quickly. Nasty stuff.

[Guest gorcum]

Just an update on the case of the Canadian ladies who drank a drink with deet in it,

 

Just wached the CBC news and a second ataopsy has indicated there was not enough deet in their bodies to cause death.

[Guest fountainhall]

This may be the programme you refer to -

 

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...er-autopsy.html

 

Both stories cast Thai officials and the doctors who did the initial post mortems in a pretty dodgy light! The article above also mentions three other suspicious deaths from 2009. All three were staying in accommodation close to that of the two young Canadians and their cases remain unsolved!

[Rogie]

Well if it wasn't DEET what was it? One can speculate till the cows come home, but when two young women die in such fashion people should try their best to fully investigate all possible avenues. Just imagine how their family and friends must be feeling being told one thing and then being told, no, it wasn't that, it must have been something else. One common factor in these investigations is how long it takes for creditable answers to emerge. That might be explained in part by the complexity of toxicolgy tests, but it often seems there's quite a dragging of feet on the Thai side. I assume all known 'date rape' drugs would have been tested for, as well as a variety of insecticides including the one implicated in the Chiang Mai hotel deaths.

 

It seems strange two healthy young women can die after an evening's drinking. I would have thought if it really was something in the drink, unless it was a deliberate 'poisoning' by an unknown hand, there would be many similar cases appearing, most of which were just a really bad hangover or awful stomach cramps or any of a range of acute symptoms. Acute symptoms but not fatal. I t seems they had drunk a cocktail with deet in it but it wasn't enoughto cause an accidental overdose. The explanation they were deliberately poisoned either in the bar or once they were back in their hotel has to be a real possibilty in my opinion.

 

But why would they be killed? I've certainly no idea but I've read enough accounts of incidents in which westerners are targeted by locals and suffered the consequences. Young women walking alone along the beach late at night being raped and killed, men taking other men or women or ladyboys back to their hotel room and being robbed, etc. I don't want to come across as anti-Thai here but there does seems to be a section of Thai menfolk who do stupid things without any thought for the consequences, both to themselves as well as the victim(s).