Are our drug policies really working? Are our drug policies really working? Last month, the Royal Thai Police and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) announced that their war on drugs was a success. Referring to increased numbers of drug users arrested and rehabilitated, deputy national police chief Pol Gen Adul Saengsingkaew is quoted by the Bangkok Post (''Govt war on drugs hailed a success'', 17th Aug) as declaring ''Regarding these statistics, the war on drugs now is going much better than it was under the previous government. Actually, it is even better than under the Thaksin Shinawatra administration which initiated this policy in 2001.'' Drug prosecutions have risen by 8% in the last year, drug arrests by 14%, and methamphetamine pill seizures by 26% -- but as many as 40% of drug injectors in Thailand are estimated to be HIV-positive. With this alarming statistic, it is clear the government needs to reassess the effectiveness of its war on drugs. On Monday, the Ministry of Justice, alongside the Transnational Institute and the International Drug Policy Consortium, is holding a high-level meeting to review the country's legal response to drug use. The latest government announcement raises, once again, a fundamental question: how to measure ''success'' when it comes to drug policies? The results quoted by Thai officials -- and by many governments around the world -- focus on amounts of drugs seized and numbers of people arrested. These represent the immediate results of specific law enforcement actions, and are