A senior police doctor in Bangkok has explained that the use of ketamine, a powerful anaesthetic in powder form with other narcotic substances, produces a drug that can ultimately drive people insane and do irreversible damage to the mental health of users in the process. Six bodies were discovered by police on Sunday and all appear to be related.
The National Police Chief, General Suwat Jangyodsuk has ordered a nationwide crackdown on the ketamine based drug cocktail ‘K Nampong’ or ‘powdered milk’ which led to six death on Sunday and the arrest of a 23-year-old drug dealer on Tuesday by police investigators in the Sai Mai area of Bangkok.
Thai police on Tuesday arrested a 23-year-old drug dealer in the Sai Mai area of Bangkok acting on a tip-off from a member of the public who fingered her as the supplier to some of the addicts who were found dead on Sunday as a result of a deadly drug cocktail that has become popular among young people in Bangkok and known as ‘K Nompong’.
K Nompong in Thai language means milk powder linked with the dangerous psychotropic drug ketamine. The drug cocktail’s contents consist of ketamine, methamphetamine, heroin and a sedative called Rosé which is grounded into a powder.
A nationwide crackdown on deadly ‘K Nampong’ drug cocktail ordered by the kingdom’s top cop
Following the discovery of the deaths on Sunday and a full police investigation launched by the Head of the Metropolitan Police Lieutenant General Phukphong Phongpetra, it is understood that on Monday, the National Police Commissioner Police General Suwat Jangyodsukm, ordered a full crackdown on the distribution and use of the drug cocktail not only in Bangkok but across the kingdom to be urgently pursued by all police forces.
Please see our initial report on the Bangkok drug deaths tragedy here
The investigation into the death of three men and three women found in the Bang Kho Laem and Suthisan areas of Bangkok on Sunday is being led by Police Colonel Saksit Meesawat.
23-year-old drug dealer, arrested by investigating team outside her home in Bangkok, owns up
On Tuesday, officers from the team investigating the deaths found 23-year-old Sirikarn Chuekhetkram standing in front of a house in the Sai Mai area of Bangkok selling drugs.
Approached by officers, she admitted that she had samples of the drug cocktail in her pocket. She then told them that she had three more packets of the narcotic mixture in her room within the house.
Police are understood to have retrieved 7.35 grams of the K Nompong mixture at the scene and took the woman in for questioning. Ms Sirikarn, also known as ‘Nun’, has been fully cooperative with police.
Purchased for a male friend in Lam Luk Ka
She explained that she purchased the drug cocktail from a male friend in the Lam Luk Ka district on Soi Khlong 2. She paid a rate of ฿470 per gram for the substance and sold it on to her customers at ฿600 per gram. She admitted to police that she did a brisk business in the drug cocktail particularly with younger customers.
She also said that she had been selling the substance for quite a long time.
Police took a statement from Ms Sirikarn who was arrested and has initially been charged with being in possession of a class 2 narcotic substance with intent to sell. She was taken into custody by Sai Mai police for legal prosecution of the case against her.
Police doctor in Bangkok warns that people have also died from the drug combination in other countries
A doctor who works at the Police Hospital, Major General Thanit Jirananthawat, explained the nature and properties of the drug cocktail being used in Bangkok by young people. He has warned that not only has the substance led to death from breathing difficulties and heart failure in other countries but that the ketamine drug, taken in powder form, has unpredictable outcomes for both the body and the brain.
Police Major General Thanit explained that ketamine, as a drug used by medics for anaesthetic purposes, is highly effective at producing a state of calm and well-being among patients.
However, he said the drug, if administered as a powder or outside medical supervision, can have psychotic effects and cause both severe breathing difficulties and cardiac problems.
Ketamine is a drug used legally for anaesthetic purposes, the powder has a ‘psychoactive effect’
‘Because Ketamine has a psychoactive effect, therefore leading to use as a powder drug intoxication. Through the heat treatment process or produced in powder form directly, smuggled illegally. It can cause symptoms of sedative intoxication. It is called a K drug and is found to be used in combination with other drugs such as ecstasy, ice, cocaine, heroin or alcohol,’ he explained.
He warned that the drug, when used as a cocktail with other substances, produces dangerous effects where users can have altered perceptions of the environment around them while breathing is depressed.
‘Ketamine is classified as a Category 2 psychotropic substance. Its use must be supervised by a physician and prescribed in a medical setting only. Smuggling, import, export without permission or without a license will lead to a fine and punishment of imprisonment,’ he emphasised.
He said that its abuse can frequently lead to delirium and hallucinations with the ultimate possibility of driving a person insane. Continued use of the substance can damage the user’s mental health capacity and faculties over an extended period.
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