Buddhist temple left empty after monks tested positive for drugs

A small Buddhist temple in Thailand has been left without monks after they were all fired for testing positive for drugs, local media reported.

Tests carried out on the four monks, including the abbot, in the northern province of Phetchabun came back positive for methamphetamine, an official told the AFP news agency.

Boonlert Thintapthai said the monks had been sent to a health clinic so they could undergo a drug rehabilitation program.

The raid came amid a national campaign to combat drug trafficking.

Without being able to “create merits”

According to local media reports, the four monks were removed from the temple on Monday after police failed urine tests on them. The officials did not say what had brought the temple to their attention by the police.

Thintapthai told AFP that the temple is now without monk monks and villagers are concerned that they will not be able to “create merit”, an important Buddhist practice in which worshipers gain protective strength through good deeds – in this case, by giving food to the religious.

But Thintapthai said regional officials in the Bung Sam Phan district sought help from the local monastic chief, who promised to assign new monks to the temple in a bid to address worshipers’ concerns.

methamphetamine in thailand

In recent years, methamphetamine has become a major problem in Thailand, with seizures of the drug reaching an all-time high in 2021, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The country is a major transit point for methamphetamine.

The drug comes into the country from Myanmar, the world’s largest producer of methamphetamine, via Laos.

The pills are then sold on the streets for around 50 baht ($1.40).

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered a clampdown on drugs last month after a former police officer who had been fired for possession of methamphetamine killed 37 people during a shooting at a kindergarten.

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