BarRaider: Thai Clubs, Drugs & Hookers (Oh My!) – Part II

You’re not so sure about having that bar girl you know getting your ya for you. What if it’s some sortof setup? Let me repeat once more – put your fears to rest. It’s the land of smiles, remember? Drug dealing in many parts of Thailand is a big business partnership. There are bartenders, hostesses, bar girls, drug dealer and the boys in brown in line to get a cut. Bullshit you say? Well…

Part I

You probably know, or at least have heard, about the kickback schemes the boys in brown are in on – from the unofficial lottery to the sidewalk bars to the gogo kickbacks to name a few, they get a cut of all the action. What’s that got to do with the girls consuming and side dealing ya? Well, do you think the boys in brown are going to put them in jail if it’s the girls and the venues they work in that are providing them with a source of revenue? Of course not! So what happens? An informer with an inside contact gets the wink and a nod that there’s going to be a drug test and passes it onto the club, bar or massage managers or owners ahead of time! Aren’t they just swell guys? Here’s how it usually happens.

Anywhere from a day or two to a couple hours prior to the drug test, the managers and mamasans are notified that there will be a drug raid and on site testing. If it’s more than a day before the tests, many of the girls are told about it so they don’t even bother to come in the evening of the test. Yaba is commonly used by many bar girls and hostesses. In a few of the bars I have been present on the night the raid was announced I’ve seen more than half the girls leave if it was a last minute announcement. The first time I witnessed it I was thinkin “WTF is going on?”. Later it was explained to me. Aaahh-haaa! So that’s what that was about.

What adds more to this joke is the drug raid is conducted late in the evening. This gives the bar time to have a good night of business in terms of drinks sold and bar fines collected for the evening. The girls that get bar fined before the raid who are on yaba don’t come back and the other’s leave early.

If you happen to be in a club, no worries! In most instances they round up the farang for a free pass out a side door. In rare instances they’ll pat you down or make you take the piss.

As I mentioned before, speaking with my girlfriend, her friends and sister, the reason most the girls take yaba isn’t so much for the high as it is for losing weight. The problem of course is that it’s still meth and it’s still addictive. Those who do enjoy it for the high stop taking it in tablet form and begin crushing and smoking it for a more intense high.

Oh, and just try to talk about this to any Thai person you know well. If it’s not denied outright you’ll probably get the standard, “You don’t understand Thai culture.” response. Maybe not, but I understand the capitalist system well enough to know the reason for this is to keep the girls working, the customers happy and keep the kick back racket alive and well.

Ask around some of the venues and you’ll learn some of these girls are spending serious money for their ya fix. Some seasoned users spending upwards of 3000 baht a day. Figure about 50% of the girls in areas such as Nana, Walking Street and Cowboy are on the Y-train. That’s some serious money.

So next time you read stories like this or this where the official story is they don’t know what’s going on, you’ll be able to put the pieces together.