Thailand temple left without monks after all failed drug tests

Thailand: Four monks including an abbot at a temple in Phetchabun province's Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine. The monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, the official said.  

A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official said Tuesday. All four of them have been defrocked, the official added. Defrocking is the removal of a monk’s rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry.

At a temple in the Bung Sam Phan district of Phetchabun province on Monday, four monks, including the abbot, tested positive for methamphetamine, according to district official Boonlert Thintapthai. The officer said, "They have been sent to a medical facility for drug rehabilitation." "The temple is now empty of monks and nearby villagers are concerned they cannot do any merit-making," he said.

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The news agency quoted him as saying, "The temple is now devoid of monks and adjacent people are worried that they cannot perform any merit-making." Worshipers might earn merit by giving food to monks as a good deed.

According to Boonlert, more monks will be dispatched to the temple so that the locals may fulfil their religious duties. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Thailand plays a significant role in the transit of methamphetamine that enters the nation via Laos and Myanmar. On the open market, the pills are offered for less than 20 baht (about $0.50).

Reportedly, in January 2022, a Buddhist monk was arrested on charges of using and selling methamphetamine pills in a village in the Chaiyaphum region of northeastern Thailand.