Jack Board

BANGKOK: Despite record levels of seizures across East and Southeast Asia last year, the illegal synthetic drugs industry is thriving and growing, according to new regional findings. Methamphetamine seizures reached 349 tonnes in 2025 - a 48 per cent increase from the previous year and more than five times the amount seized a decade ago - according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released last Friday (Jun 12).

BANGKOK: In late 2023, Thailand’s new government was on an international investment blitz. Then-Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin had framed himself as Thailand’s economic fixer, a leader with genuine business-world credentials that could turn around the country’s years of sluggish performance.

PHNOM PENH: It is a chaotic and dusty artery that links Cambodia to Vietnam through the frontier town of Bavet. Dozens of workers pack into the backs of trucks, shipped to and from factories and building sites. Children play beside guarded compounds, rubbish burns near golden casino entrances and luxury vehicles pass stark worker dormitories. There is one thing that stands out among it all: the flood of advertising for online gambling, everywhere despite it being illegal in Cambodia.