Blazing drugs

Photo by: Will Baxter
Drugs seized by authorities over the past two years that were destroyed on Thursday

via CAAI

Thursday, 09 September 2010 18:07 Rann Reuy

SIEM Reap authorities have destroyed more than US$100,000 worth of illicit drugs seized over the past two years in Siem Reap and Oddar Meanchey provinces, officials said.

Non Sophanny, chief of the provincial office of anti-drug trafficking, said the illicit haul burnt by officials Thursday included 9,592 tablets of yama, or methamphetamine, 492 packages of crystal methamphetamine, three packages of heroin and two tablets of ecstasy.

“Most of the drugs were confiscated in Siem Reap,” Non Sophanny said, adding that the majority of the pills likely entered the province from Phnom Penh and through the Poipet border crossing from Thailand.

The seizures were the culmination of efforts to crack down on the sale and usage of drugs in the Siem Reap and Oddar Meanchey, he said, which have seen 42 people arrested for alleged involvement in trafficking illegal drugs since the start of the year.

He added that according to surveys conducted in Siem Reap town, 241 people are addicted to or otherwise involved with drugs.

“If they got into the hands of our youth, it would have been a health hazard for many people,” he said...

read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.