Duties of police officers to drugs prevention and suppression policy for operation : a case study of Hot District Provincial Police Station, Chiang Mai Province
Abstract:
This independent study aims to examine the role of police officers in implementing drug prevention and suppression policies in their operational areas, explore the patterns of state-society relations emerging from the implementation of these policies, and investigate the problems and obstacles faced by police officers in the policy implementation process at Hot District Police Station, Chiang Mai Province. The findings revealed that the roles of police officers in implementing drug prevention and suppression policies comprise two main aspects. First, in terms of suppression, police officers establish checkpoints and roadblocks to conduct searches and make arrests related to drug offenses. Second, in terms of prevention, police officers strengthen community and school resilience against drug use and work to identify drug users within communities to refer them for rehabilitation in collaboration with other agencies. The pattern of state-society relations observed reflects the statist model. The state independently formulates and enforces policies, exercising authority to regulate and control society within a framework set by the state. Nevertheless, society consistently monitors and scrutinizes the state's actions, and when issues or negative impacts arise, society actively demands changes and promotes its proposals through both state mechanisms and independent initiatives. The problems and obstacles faced by police officers include insufficient personnel relative to their workload, lack of knowledge, skills, and opportunities for additional training, and an inadequate budget to fully implement the policies. Furthermore, shortages and deterioration of equipment, lack of cooperation from other relevant agencies, discontinuity in policy execution, an excessive and overlapping workload, and policy redundancy without updates to reflect changing conditions of drug-related problems were also identified.