"Patients, not criminals"? An assessment of Thailand's compulsory drug dependence treatment system

Since the enactment of a new law on addiction treatment in 2002, Thailand has sharply increased the number of people in compulsory drug treatment programs. This article provides an overview of the system, particularly the custodial programs. It also provides some preliminary observations on the implementation of the legislation on its own terms--namely, that people who are dependent on drugs should be "treated as patients and not criminals." While diverting people with drug dependence from the criminal justice system is important, this stated approach is undermined in a number of ways by the law's implementation. This article is based on a longer report released by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network in 2009.