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BANGKOK: Thailand’s claim to have seized nearly $ 1 billion in smuggled ketamine this month was incorrect and tests so far have shown no drugs, the justice minister said on Tuesday (November 24).
Somsak Thepsuthin said that tests that turned purple in the presence of ketamine hydrochloride reacted in the same way with trisodium phosphate, a chemical that can be used as a food additive and cleaning agent, which is all that had been found until now.
“This was a misunderstanding that our agency must accept,” he told reporters. “This was not a mistake. It is new knowledge.”
He said the tests continued. About 66 of 475 bags had been tested on Sunday.
Thailand’s Narcotics Control Board Office announced the seizure on November 12, saying it targeted a multinational drug ring.
In medicine, ketamine is used as an anesthetic or antidepressant, but as a recreational drug it is used to induce dreamy or trance sensations and sometimes hallucinations.
