PHUKET: Flames consumed kratom leaves on Phuket yesterday as officials began a pilot project aimed at obliterating the natural banned drug on the island.
Sixty-eight trees around Phuket's central Thalang region got the chop as Phuket Vice Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada warned of the evils of mixing the leaves with cough syrup and other additives.
The 4x100 concoction has even been speculatively linked recently to the mysterious deaths on neighboring Phi Phi island of young Canadian sisters Noemi and Audrey Belanger.
Insecticide, another potential ingedient in the 4x100 mix, was found in autopsies of the sisters, one of the police investigators told Phuketwan. Canadian reports labelled it as DEET, a common ingredient in mosquito sprays.
The crackdown on Phuket comes more because of the prevalence of the banned kratom leaves all over the holiday island, often planted, officials believe, near the labor camps of itinerant Burmese workers.
People who use kratom mixed with other substances have been known to scrape the yellow paint from roadways and boil that with other ingredients.
As with glue and petrol sniffing, the frequent use of the chemical concoction has negative health effects.
Now outlawed, kratom leaves were traditionally a herbalist's natural remedy for aches and pains and even considered by some to have aphrodisiacal properties.
Sixty-eight trees around Phuket's central Thalang region got the chop as Phuket Vice Governor Jamleran Tipayapongtada warned of the evils of mixing the leaves with cough syrup and other additives.
The 4x100 concoction has even been speculatively linked recently to the mysterious deaths on neighboring Phi Phi island of young Canadian sisters Noemi and Audrey Belanger.
Insecticide, another potential ingedient in the 4x100 mix, was found in autopsies of the sisters, one of the police investigators told Phuketwan. Canadian reports labelled it as DEET, a common ingredient in mosquito sprays.
The crackdown on Phuket comes more because of the prevalence of the banned kratom leaves all over the holiday island, often planted, officials believe, near the labor camps of itinerant Burmese workers.
People who use kratom mixed with other substances have been known to scrape the yellow paint from roadways and boil that with other ingredients.
As with glue and petrol sniffing, the frequent use of the chemical concoction has negative health effects.
Now outlawed, kratom leaves were traditionally a herbalist's natural remedy for aches and pains and even considered by some to have aphrodisiacal properties.
Another photo oppurtunity, 80 plants, wow, that will make a difference, will they remove all natural plants, that are narcotic, what rubbish, all they have done is add toxic chemicals to the enviroment by burning rubber tyres.
Posted by dbate_me on September 8, 2012 09:26