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A small Buddhist temple in Thailand has been left empty after all the monks failed drug tests, local authorities say.
Four monks, including the abbot, have tested positive for methamphetamine in the Bung Sam Phan district of Phetchabun province in the north of the country, Boonlert Thintapthai, a local official, told AFP news agency.
The monks would have been removed from the temple on Monday (28/11), after the police subjected them to urine toxicological tests. Authorities did not say, however, what drew attention to the temple.
The operation took place in the midst of a national campaign to combat drug trafficking.
Thintapthai claimed that the monks were later sent to a clinic to undergo a drug rehabilitation programme.
He told AFP that “the temple is now empty, without monks, and locals are worried that they won’t be able to get any merit.”
Earning merit is an important Buddhist practice in which devotees gain protective power through good deeds—in this case, giving food to monks.
Thintapthai said regional officials had sought help from the local monastic head, who had promised to assign new monks to the temple in a bid to address worshipers’ concerns.
In recent years, methamphetamine has become a major problem in Thailand — and seizures of the drug hit an all-time high in 2021, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The country is a major transit point for methamphetamine. The drugs arrive in the country from Myanmar, the world’s largest producer of methamphetamine, via Laos.
The pills are then sold on the streets for around 50 Baht (US$1.40).
