Bad abbot: Thai temple left empty after monks fail drug tests

This file photo taken on November 20, 2019, shows methamphetamine pills, which were transported by truck from northern Thailand, on display after a seizure at the police station in the southern province of Narathiwat. – A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official said on November 29, 2022. AFP FILE PHOTO

BANGKOK — A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official said Tuesday.

Four monks including an abbot at a temple in Phetchabun province’s Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, district official Boonlert Thintapthai told AFP.

The monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, the official said.

“The temple is now empty of monks and nearby villagers are concerned they cannot do any merit-making,” he said.

Merit-making involves worshippers donating food to monks as a good deed.

Boonlert said more monks will be sent to the temple to allow villagers to practice their religious obligations.

Thailand is a major transit country for methamphetamine flooding in from Myanmar’s troubled Shan state via Laos, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

On the street, pills sell for less than 20 baht (around $0.50).

Authorities across Southeast Asia have made record meth seizures in recent years.

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