Injured Omani in Thailand motorbike accident allegedly found with drugs

Just take care on holiday kids. And say no to drugs.

Local Thai Newpaper Pattaya People reported that an Omani tourist, 31 yr old Abdul Khalil, who was injured in a motorcycle accident, was allegedly found in possession of drugs.

what a bummer. Busted up in a road accident and busted for a stash.

I'm sure he was just holding them for a friend.


Photo: Pattaya People pic of Omani tourist (and suspected drug possessor) Abdul Khalil after his motorbike accident


(Yaba, BTW, is the Thai version of methamphetamine aka crystal meth.)

Drugs Find
Pattaya police received a call from staff at the Pattaya Memorial Hospital on the evening of the 26th December that a tourist had been admitted with injuries after a motorcycle accident on Thepprasit Road. However, on searching the man’s clothing, they discovered a quantity of drugs. Police went to investigate and question the 31 year old man, Abdul Khalil from Oman about the possession of yaba, ecstasy and sleeping pills. However, the man was in a semi-conscious condition to answer. Police are now guarding the man who they believe is a drug dealer until he sufficiently recovers to give a statement about the drugs.

Plenty of drugs in Oman

Well, from the comments on an earlier post questioning the ROP's recent claim to have reduced drug smuggling into Oman by 90%, and a couple of confidential emails I got sent too (thanks mystery informants!), it seems pretty conclusive that there has by no means been an effective halt to the importation of drugs into Oman.
Prices for Hash and Heroin are stable, and there is plenty of both available.
Heroin is around 7.5 rials per dose. Hash, around 1.5 rial per joint. Despite there being plenty of Heroin, morphine is increasingly popular because it's purer and carries less of a stigma.

As with all countries, the problem can only be addressed on the demand side, not the supply side. With Oman's huge coastline and proximity to Pakistan and Afghanistan, combined with the historical and ongoing smuggling trade across the straight of Hormuz between Oman and Iran, its always going to be impossible to stop it. Where there is demand, the market will seek to supply. Even if the ROP were successful in blocking imports, the resulting rise in price would automatically encourage more supply. But even that isn't happening. Prices are very low and stable.
It up to more education in the schools, more rehab centers, and demand side policing. Certainly the solution is not self serving reports in the press that pretend there isn't a problem, or having draconian sentencing for the unlucky few users that get caught. There is a problem, and its getting worse. With so much unemployment and underemployment amongst the youth, its natural that Heroin will make inroads.
The problem will the current approach (here and in most countries) is that it creates a distribution system for all drugs, and thus the dealer who can supply hashish can also supply heroin. Given the non-addictiveness of hash, it's in the dealer's interest to encourage a switch to heroin. More profit and a hooked customer.
Dragon is a big fan of the Dutch approach. Make soft drugs effectively legal and concentrate on building a wall between the supply systems for soft and hard drugs.
But that won't happen, unfortunately, so its likely Oman's drug problem, and the strong drug culture building in Oman's youth, will grow.

News Update

A few interesting articles in the papers these past few days.

1/ First the collapse of a building in Al Khuwair.

The ROP is conducting interrogations to find out the reasons for the collapse of the building and the extent of damage, a source at the ROP said.

Looking at many of the buildings going up around town, the amazing thing I find is that this is not happening very often! Oman's building style is old fashioned reinforced concrete columns, solid concrete floors, and the gaps filled in the cinder blocks. Its cheap because cement is cheap and it can be built by essentially unskilled NRIs and Pakistani labourers with no safety standards. But the columns always look way too skinny to my unprofessional eye. One big quake in Musandam and I'd be pretty afraid of being in many Omani buildings at all. They look great once all rendered and painted white, but the amount of structural steel and load-bearing cement seems as low as you could possibly make it! Anyone out there studing civil engineering that can make an informed comment?
In the Tribune

Two people have been rescued so far, the ROP added, and said that they were working in collaboration with other civic authorities. “Investigations are also going on to ascertain the reason behind the collapse and the authorities are yet to determine causalities and material damages caused.”
The building is owned by a commercial establishment. In the wake of the incident, the ROP has urged all building owners to take the necessary steps to ensure their building’s safety.

Hmmm. Lets see if we ever hear anything ever again in terms of an actual result from the investigation. Don't hold your breath. My worry is that 30 years ago the buildings were generally built a lot better than now. Of course, if Oman had a decent system of qualified building inspectors enforcing a strict modern building code, we could all feel secure that this was just a freak accident in a 30yr old building where someone was storing solid lead on a cracked mezzanine floor. But somehow I'm not confident that building inspections are all that rigorous even when they occur... As a result, the ever helpful authorities simply urge owners to check their buildings, so if another one falls down it'll be your fault, and certainly not the fault of the authorities actually responsible for setting and enforcing standards. Its the 'Cover Your Ass' system of Government Accountability.

2/ The ROP said the other day that 'drugs smuggling into Oman is 90% less than in the year 2000', thanks to the ROP doing a great job and enforcing strict penalties. I'm not sure how this 'fact' is worked out, as of course it wasn't explained and the crack reportage in Oman failed to ask for any actual data or evidence. Muppets. So, does it actually mean that the ROP - despite increased efforts - are only catching 1/10th of the smugglers they used too? Or is an alternate explanation that they are just no longer busting 90% of the drugs?

A far better measure of the demonstrable success of such efforts is the street price of drugs available in Oman. Now, if they gave me that info, and showed how successfully restricting supply had made prices skyrocket, I'd be more convinced. Similar studies in the US have shown that even while the US customs were busting ever increasing quantities of cocaine, the street price was falling as smugglers just moved a lot more product without getting caught.

Any info on trends in drug prices in Oman gratefully received, totally anonomously. I'll compile the answers and do some graphs for you.