Health and social welfare experts alike recognise the huge dangers posed by the cheap pills. Like most addictive substances, users develop a physical or physiological need to consume again. These are arguably self-inflicted wounds that do not need state intervention, especially if adults are involved. But the real damage of the Burmese pill invasion is worse. Families are commonly split when one or more members is a user.
Children steal from their parents for drug money, ignore their studies.
Their behaviour becomes anti-social in the extreme, alienating whole neighbourhoods. Communities are ripped apart by amphetamines. Fear and loathing of the users spreads, distrust becomes common. Authority breaks down in the most harmful manner, of son against mother, brother against sister, neighbour against neighbour. The corruption of the pill invasion is only beginning to become evident Rumours that influential Members of Parliament are directly involved in the amphetamine trade still remain to be proved.