When you think of the word monk, you picture a person who has no flaws whatsoever. Or is always striving to be on their best, most peaceful behavior. But a recent report of a Thailand temple’s monks failing a drug test, may make you rethink that whole idea.
And even though, at the end of the day, monks are also human beings, they can very well have flaws like the rest of us, this report is startling because it is an out-of-the-ordinary case.
According to the sources, an abbot and four monks at a temple in the Bung Sam Phan district of Phetchabun province tested positive for methamphetamine earlier this week. They’ve all confessed to both, consuming and dealing the drug. Apparently, the drug is remarkably cheap in Thailand and this makes it all the more accessible. Post this, all 5 of them were sent to a rehabilitation center. And new monks have been assigned to the temple by the local monastic chief.
In the last few years, methamphetamine has become a major issue in Thailand. And it is a major transit point for the drug, which comes from Myanmar; the world’s biggest producer of methamphetamine.