Pattaya students caught smoking to be sent to drug-rehab camps

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Deputy Mayor Poramet Ngampichet presides over a meeting with public-health officials, teachers and principals stressing that schools should be free of both illegal drugs and cigarettes.
Deputy Mayor Poramet Ngampichet presides over a meeting with public-health officials, teachers and principals stressing that schools should be free of both illegal drugs and cigarettes.

Pattaya students caught smoking at school will be send to a drug-rehabilitation program under new rules dictated for the city’s public schools.

Deputy Mayor Poramet Ngampichet presided over the Nov. 8 meeting with public-health officials, teachers and principals, with winners of two To Be No. 1 anti-drug club events present.

The meeting stressed that schools should be free of both illegal drugs and cigarettes, with Poramet pointing out that half the people sent to mandatory drug-rehab programs this year were ages 15-24.

Schools no longer can take any sponsorship or support from businesses related to tobacco and drugs, no smoking signs must be posted around school grounds and teachers and staff are prohibited from smoking on school property.

Any students caught smoking will be sent to drug camps, the deputy mayor said.

Schools also should produce media illustrating the dangers of cigarettes and addictive substances and students should be screened regularly to determine if they are involved with drugs or cigarettes.