Cambodian authorities burn more than one ton of drugs at a destruction ceremony in Phnom Penh on Aug. 28, 2012. Though drugs are illegal in Cambodia, a worldwide loosening of marijuana laws is testing rigid UN drug conventions.
Credit: Tang Chhin Sothy

Cambodia arrests 8,864 suspects, seizing 259 kg of drugs in 5 months

Xinhua|
2020-06-01

PHNOM PENH, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The number of people arrested in Cambodia for allegedly involving in illicit drugs rose by 28 percent in the first five months of 2020, according to the Interior Ministry's anti-drug department report released on Monday.

The authorities had caught 8,864 drug-related suspects in 4,490 cases during the January-May period this year, up 28 percent and 37 percent, respectively compared to the same period last year, the report said.

About 5,260 suspects were involved in drug trafficking and 3,604 were related to drug use, it said, adding that 114 of them are foreigners in seven nationalities.

"A total of 259.5 kilograms of illicit drugs and 225 kilograms of dry marijuana as well as 180,490 marijuana plants had been confiscated from those suspects," the report said, adding that 16 rifles, four pistols, 29 cars and 882 motorcycles had also been seized.

The Southeast Asian nation has no death sentence for drug traffickers. Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grams of illicit drugs could be jailed for life.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-0 ... 105469.htm

the other side of the story

Cambodia's drug war has seen prisoner numbers skyrocket during coronavirus pandemic
Allegations of torture and corruption

"Cambodia's war on drugs is a human rights disaster, and utterly disregards the people whose lives it destroys," he said.

.....She was pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth while incarcerated, awaiting trial. She was still waiting for a court date when her baby died.
"This woman should never have been in prison at all," Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, told the ABC.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-31/ ... n/12288860

(and still, here on CEO we keep posting heroic cop photos of the dirt poor addicts and two-bit dealers so people can cast their self-rightous stones and make fun of their misery.
Sorry, i felt duty bound to include that uncomfortable bit)

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:06 pm the other side of the story

Cambodia's drug war has seen prisoner numbers skyrocket during coronavirus pandemic
Allegations of torture and corruption

"Cambodia's war on drugs is a human rights disaster, and utterly disregards the people whose lives it destroys," he said.

.....She was pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth while incarcerated, awaiting trial. She was still waiting for a court date when her baby died.
"This woman should never have been in prison at all," Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, told the ABC.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-31/ ... n/12288860

(and still, here on CEO we keep posting heroic cop photos of the dirt poor addicts and two-bit dealers so people can cast their self-rightous stones and make fun of their misery.
Sorry, i felt duty bound to include that uncomfortable bit)

@SternAAlbifrons CEO News does post "uncomfortable" news on the "dirt poor addicts" and the everyday victims of the "war on drugs" in Cambodia. This news is brought to you in order to inform you of the plight of the people, not to throw stones at them, and definitely not to make fun.

The reports of small time arrests are intended to shine some light on who is getting arrested and banged up. If you have any critical sense, you will notice that the arrests of small-time drug users vastly outnumber the drug busts of 1 kilo or more. Pregnant women are arrested, homeless people are arrested and children are also arrested; this is reported on CEO because it is a matter of national interest that the fight against the flood of methamphetamine is hitting Cambodian society on every level, but as usual, the poor and the outcasts are paying the heaviest price.
Recent threads include:
newsworthy/cambodian-police-drug-crackd ... 20#p417276
post426163.html?hilit=baby%20dies%20in%20prison#p399205
newsworthy/amnesty-international-report ... 38112.html
newsworthy/homeless-gang-busted-police- ... 38491.html

Fair enough, News.
but i still think it is shaming

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:05 pm Fair enough, News.
but i still think it is shaming

Many of the comments regarding the arrest acknowledge that the big guys behind it are never seen,

In any country around the globe it is not known of the big guys, the supplier, the organiser, smuggler, the real big drug baron, their very rarely named or have been caught. Some yes, but not often. That is unless they fall out of favour or an example is too be made. Do these people exist in todays world? If not who are the organisers of the illegal big money trade of todays drug suppliers.

But life is never the same for the people whose bleakest, most humiliating moments now live online forever.
In interviews with The New York Times, they talked — some for the very first time — about the versions of themselves captured in the videos.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/us/o ... drugs.html

Dependence on illegal drugs has been ranked as the most stigmatised health condition globally, with alcohol dependence ranked as the fourth most stigmatised.
https://adf.org.au/insights/stigma-peop ... use-drugs/

Stop shaming those with addiction
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2018/05/st ... ction.html
Shaming the Sick: Addiction and Stigma
https://drugabuse.com/addiction/stigma/
How Shame Feeds Addiction
https://www.addictioncampuses.com/blog/ ... addiction/

(IMO only)