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That toughening was welcomed by the public as an antidote to a judicial system stymied by an indulgent culture of successive appeals that enabled – and sometimes still enables - politicians to dodge accountability for decades.

But the need is great, complicated by the street drugs some people use for self-medication, and progress is often stymied by multiple forces despite billions of dollars worth of investments in solutions.

But the new US levies - which come on top of tariffs from Trump's first term - could stymie these plans, not least because they could dampen investor sentiment.

Phuket was the first place in Thailand to reopen in 2021 after the pandemic stymied international travel in much of the world.

They could also be stymied by technological failures such as power outages and disrupted cellphone signals.