Buddhist Temple Emptied After Monks Test Positive for Meth

A Buddhist temple in Thailand has been cleared out after every one of its monks tested positive for methamphetamines, with each one being sent to rehab.

Per The Washington Post, local officials were ordered to investigate potential drug use in the Phetchabun province of Thailand, around 150 miles north of Bangkok. The officials then began loitering around schools, factories, and temples, searching for addicts and dealers to be sent to rehabilitation, but never thought they’d encounter monks as part of the problem.

“As a community leader, I was frightened because I never thought the monks would be addicted to drugs,” village headman Sungyut Namburi told the outlet. “I never thought that drugs would spread to temples.”

Sungyut had been told by locals to investigate their temple and said upon meeting the four monks it was immediately clear they were addicts just from their erratic behavior alone. He and the sheriff tested all four, and then another two from a separate temple, and all six tests came back positive for meth. Even the head of one monastery, who had been a monk for over a decade, tested positive for drugs. Once the tests came back positive, some of the monks confessed to being longtime addicts.

“When I inspected the abbot’s shelter, I was stunned because it was a mess,” Sungyut said, later adding, “they are misbehaving monks, and they should leave the monkhood if they can’t follow and practice the disciplines.”

Another local official named Niti Rungjaruenkij said the ex-monks, along with other addicts, had been enrolled in rehabilitation on Wednesday. Sungyut noted the monks were forced to abandon monkhood first because having a monk inside a rehab center would have been “inappropriate.”

The good news, Sungyut said, is that they can become monks again after they detox from the drugs. He added it was “very difficult” for villagers to watch their temple completely empty out, but said they came around.