The Colombian government will apply the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s royal wisdom in tackling its own drug problem - the widespread cultivation of coca, the source of cocaine, Office of the Narcotics Control Board secretary-general Sirinya Sitdhichai said on Friday.
He was after taking visiting representatives of Colombian anti-drug authorities to visit Doi Tung Development Project and a reforestation project under the Global Partnership on Drug Policies and Development (GPDPD).
The delegation, which is visiting Thailand from Aug 23-31, includes Eduardo Diaz Uribe, director for Comprehensive Care on the Fight against Drugs in Colombia, and Claudia Paola Salcedo Vasquez,a consultant to the agency.
The GPDPD is a bilateral reforestation project involving the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, a German government unit responsible for international cooperation for sustainable development.
Mr Sirinya said both Thai royal projects, in Chiang Rai province, were lauded by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as pilot schemes which successfully addressed the issue of narcotic drug cultivation .
He said the royal wisdom and philosophy inherent in the projects would help Colombia tackle its own drug trafficking problem. There were an estimated 900,000 rai of land planted in coca shrubs, the source of the stimulant drug cocaine, in the South American country.
Mr Uribe said the Colombian government would adapt the royal wisdom of the crop substitution scheme in confronting its own problem of illegal coca cultivation.
