BALTIMORE, March 10 (UPI) -- An aggressive war against illicit drugs in Thailand helped 70 percent of injection drug users to stop using heroin, a study said.
However, nearly a third of those who quit heroin said they switched to using methamphetamine and other drugs, reported researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and Thailand's Chiang Mai University Research Institute for Health Sciences and the Northern Drug Treatment Centre.
The researchers also found the war on drugs had a greater impact in the rural countryside than in to the more densely populated cities. The study is published in the March 2005 edition of the International Journal of Drug Policy.
"The war on drugs in Thailand had a significant impact on injection drug use. However, policy makers must be aware of the unintended consequences of their actions," said David Celentano, co-author of the study.
Thailand's war on drugs, which began in February 2003, has been criticized by a number of human rights groups.
