How yaba swept across East Asia
The drug used to be legal in Thailand but was renamed to mean ‘mad pill’.
What in the World · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
The Golden Triangle, a border region of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos is the world’s most active production zone for synthetic drugs like methamphetamine. Synthetic drugs are made from chemicals, instead of plants. But yaba - which has been around for decades and is a mix of caffeine and meth - has swept across the region and hit Thailand particularly hard because it’s really cheap and easy to come by. According to UN Office of Drugs and Crime, in 2024 Thailand seized more than 1 billion yaba tablets.
We speak to BBC Thai reporter, Panisa Aemocha in Bangkok about who is making yaba, how authorities are trying to tackle it, and why people are detoxing from it in a Buddhist monastery.
Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Pria Rai Producers: Julia Ross-Roy and Benita Barden Video Journalist: Baldeep Chahal Editor: Verity Wilde