Behind bars: Thai women pay high price for drugs

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Behind bars: Thai women pay high price for drugs

25 June 2014

Mai, 27, was sentenced to three years in jail after she was caught with 20 "yaba" pills -- a slang term for methamphetamine known locally as "crazy medicine" -- used by tens of thousands of Thais from taxi drivers to students.

"The amount of yaba was more than was considered for personal use so I was charged with selling," said Mai, whose boyfriend is also in prison for dealing methamphetamine.

She is serving her second stint behind bars in a prison in Ayutthaya north of Bangkok where she lives with her baby boy, and has no hope of early release in a country with one of the world's strictest anti-drugs policies.

A three-year jail sentence for meth possession is routine in Thailand, where use of the illegal stimulant is rife.

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