1 Pill = 28 Years

1 Pill = 28 Years

Non-Fiction / True Memoir with Commentary and Opinions

Copyright 2020 by Ken Albertsen

Adventure1 Publications

ISBN 9781879338180

All rights reserved under international and Pan-American Copyright conventions. This e-book is available for the person who purchased it. This e-book should not be copied or re-sold or given away to others. Exception: small portions of this book may be quoted in other venues, if it's in regard to reviews or within a teaching context. If you would like to share this book with others, please arrange for the purchase of additional copies, accordingly. Thank you for respecting the work of this author. Reviews are appreciated.

Dedicated to Sleepy John Estes, one of the greatest blues musicians.

Here's an excerpt from one of his songs:

'Baby who, who been tellin' you?

'I say baby who, who been tellin' you?'

'I don't know what they been saying'

but they did not tell you the truth.'

Chapters

1. The Story Begins Here

2. Sad Night, May 2018

3. Believe It or Not, ....But It's True

4. Ya-Ba Blah Blah

5. Thumbnail Sketches

6. Characters

7. Health Issues

8. Trying to Write a Letter in a Hurricane

9. When a Lawyer is not an Advocate

10. A Promise by a Thai Authority Don’t Mean Nothin’

11. The Bleat Goes On

12. Doing Things or No Thing

13. Recreational Drugs and The Bible

14. Religion vs Science & Nature

15. Spirituality

16. A Better Mousetrap Don't Mean Diddley Squat

- Foreword -

I wanted to write this text while incarcerated, but no computer was available. Granted, I could have written parts of it longhand, which I did somewhat in the form of notes - but in prison, just getting ballpoint pen and paper was a challenge. Writing the memoir entailed mentally revisiting many of the scenarios which I'm endeavoring to forget.

The following text tells the true story of getting busted in northern Thailand, along with my lady friend, Lwin. I didn't have a family to speak of, so I was not mentally burdened with worrying about children and so on. Lwin did have that travail and she cried herself to sleep every night behind bars. What started as a chronicle of Lwin's and my dire predicaments - soon became a bigger bowl of soup.

Within the following text, the case will be made that Thailand's DSI (their version of US's FBI) plus America's DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) are in a pact to ruin thousands of families. Much thought, research & facts have gone toward such conclusions. All will be articulated in the book.

Bear with how the stories unfold, and you may come to see how it's evident the DEA and Thai authorities are working together to create a drug problem that would not exist if cool heads prevailed - or if there wasn't such a lust for money by Thai officials. As anyone knows, once you start giving monthly allowance to someone, you'll catch hell if you cut off the tap. DEA spends multi-billions of dollars each year, and they're not just buying urine-test kits. By the way, it's the same DEA which didn't notice that US pharmaceutical companies were selling billions of pharmaceutical opiate pills in the USA until years later.

Besides drug issues, there are issues revolving around human trafficking. The text will also show how RWC (right-wing Christian) groups, the richest NGO's in the world, are barking up the wrong trees in their zeal to impose their deist moral codes on the rest of world. The researched text in this book will show how they're using their multi-billions + flawed information - to ruin lives and wreck families worldwide.

The institutions mentioned in this text have been contacted - to give them the option to respond with their descriptions of what they're doing overseas, and how much they're spending. Not surprisingly, they haven't responded, even though two of the institutions (US's DEA and Thailand's DSI) are taxpayer-funded and such info should be available upon formal request.

A major part of their operations are clandestine. Like slime, they abhor sunshine - particularly if it sheds light on their operations. Many countries have historically had special police and the more oppressive their operations, the more secretive they need to be. Some examples: Germany's Gestapo, Iran's Savak, East Germany's Stazi, USSR's KGB, America's CIA, and Israel's Mossad, to name a few. How similar is Thailand's DSI? They're small potatoes, comparatively.

The following text also exposes religion in ways that will rile deists. Why target religion? The simple answer: Because some of their agents spread harm around the world. If religions kept to enforcing moral codes for their own flocks, then their harmful actions would not be so dire.

Thumbnail summary: what started out as a description of unfair imprisonment of two foreigners in Thailand, ballooned into revelations concerning several institutions based in the US and Thailand, which are creating unnecessary misery for hundreds of thousands of decent people. Interspersed are suggestions for improvements.

Not long ago Burma (Myanmar) was controlled by military brass who were getting very rich from their iron grip on the country. For that and other reasons, some would-be tourists chose to not go to Burma to spend tourist dollars. Now Burma is somewhat democratic, so their tourist industry is not as anemic as it was earlier. How different is Burma's direct neighbor? Thailand has had two sets of un-elected military men controlling its government for most of this century. Each time top brass put themselves in the drivers' seats, they take off their medal-bedecked shirts and put on handsome silk shirts and act as though they've never been military - but instead have always been sage men who care about the welfare of all Thais. As part of their martial control, Thai generals have had a part in placing tens of thousands of inmates in prisons - most for victimless offenses. Cloaking oneself in law & order has always been useful for politicians in oppressive countries. Just look at how it worked for Mussolini.

Note, I don't say 'victimless crimes' because there is no real crime involved in most of the cases referred to in this miasma. Instead I use the term 'victimless offense.' What is that? Answer: any action in which no person, property, ego, or animal is harmed. Examples: A woman who is angry at her husband can clandestinely slip a ya-ba (speed) pill in his pocket - and then call police to arrest him. He's then put behind bars for 20 years. It may sound absurd, but such things happen more often than authorities will admit. Another: A young man buys four cartons of cigarettes with the idea to sell them for a slight profit in a nearby town. He's busted and slammed in prison for 8 years, first offense. Another young man is caught with half a speed pill in his pocket - first offense. He is imprisoned for 23 years. Such stories are not anomalies by any stretch. They are par for the course. Thailand ranks 6th in the world regarding prisoners per population (526 per 100,000 residents).

Thais in general and top authorities in particular fancy themselves as devout Buddhists. The basic tenet of Buddhism defines suffering and then articulates how to lessen suffering for one and all. If a Thai authority spends his waking hours creating undue suffering for others, is he a good Buddhist?

1. The Story Begins Here

We were gaily strolling hand in hand along the sidewalk. It was a mild evening, May 6, 2018. Location: northernmost Thailand, at a small border town called Mae Sai.

I asked Lwin if she would like to go together with me to visit Hong Kong. I’d been to HK several times, both before and after the handover by Britain, so I knew it was an enjoyable place for lovers to visit. She agreed to go, and followed-up with singing the pop song ‘Pretty Pretty Boy I Love You’ while sporadically turning and grinning at me. A 66 year old guy being serenaded by a beautiful Burmese lady near half his age - was sweet indeed. All of a sudden we were surrounded by a mob of men. They wore dark street clothes and were physically threatening. They strong-armed us over to sidewalk vendors’ tables, and cleared the tops with sweeps of their arms. Lwin and I were aghast. While I was being held firmly by two tough guys, an alpha yelled at me, give me your wallet! Though he looked Thai, he spoke English like a New Yorker.

I resisted and called out, ‘who are you? Are you robbing us – in front of all these onlookers?’

He shouted again in my face; Give me your wallet, shithead. Put it on the table. We’re police.

I responded, How do I know you’re police? Show me some ID. He waved some little piece of paper in my face.

It reminded me of the time, 18 years earlier, when I was accosted by eight plainclothes men, also dressed in black and acting thuggish. It was in Chiang Rai, my adopted home since 1998. It was mid-afternoon on an otherwise lovely warm day. I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I found out hours later that the Thai buttplugs were DSI – Bangkok’s copy of America’s FBI. At that time, nearly 2 decades prior, the pseudo cops were shaking me down for no reason – and it took 2 hours of me getting harassed - before they let me go with no charges filed. They were hoping to get me on a passport/visa problem, but later found I was 100% legal. I had to call the Tourist Police to come and rescue me from the DSI goons who were out on a fishing expedition.

Back to present time: My wallet was forced from my pocket and placed on a vendor’s table. I was still being held by two punks while a third was yelling questions at my face. Surrounding Lwin and I were about 16 other tough guys. Circled around them were 100 local folks looking to see what was happening to the elder farang (Thai word for ‘foreigner’) and his brown-skinned lady friend. Many of the vendors likely knew us, because we were also locals – who frequented this locale and often interacted cheerily with them.

The DSI agents were now rifling through my wallet. They did the same with Lwin's - Putting our money bills out on the table, and comparing the individual serial numbers of each bill with a photocopy of money bills.

‘Oh Jeez, are they trying to bust us for having counterfeit money?’ I honestly thought that was their aim. It wasn’t until 20 long minutes later that I realized they were trying to bust us on a different charge.

Some reference: I dabble as a tour guide. I’ll give some background describing my gig – in order to give reference to the episode mentioned above. Then I’ll return to that awful night in Mae Sai when Lwin and I were falsely accused of human trafficking.

I moved from northern California to reside in northern Thailand in 1998. I am low-income but was able to secure two rural properties. Initially, each property was covered in weeds and trees. After much investment, and a lot of paid assistance from local workers, the properties blossomed into park-like spaces with several rental houses on each. Probably the most useful thing I’ve done in those busy 20 years was develop better variations of fruit. Specifically: seedless pink grapefruit and avocado. Both have excellent taste and are acclimated to northern Thailand.

It started when I planted 64 seeds of each type of tree. If you talk with an experienced orchardist, he’ll probably tell you it’s crazy to grow fruit trees from seed. He would likely go on to say it’s best to grow grafted fruit trees. I agree, but was in a unique situation. At the time, avocado trees were not available in Thai nurseries. Indeed, most Thais don’t know what an avocado is. Of the comparative few who are familiar with avos, about half don’t like to eat them. That contrasts with nearby Burmese folks who know about and like avos. As for grapefruit: they’re not found for sale in Thailand – not even in up-scale grocery stores which cater to farang (foreigners). Unless a Thai person has traveled overseas, he/she won’t be familiar with grapefruit.

After 12 years, tending to the many trees grown from seed, I was rewarded with fruit. All the trees were genetically unique because they were grown from seed. Most of the avo and grapefruit trees gave fruit of quality which ranged from good to not-so-good. However, there was one grapefruit and one avocado tree which each yielded exceptional fruit. They were my #1 trees. There were a few #2 trees also – which had very good tasting fruit, but not as all-around great as the number one trees.

At the time of my arrest on May 2018, I was getting ready to cull (cut down) all the trees which weren’t #1 or #2 quality. That’s akin to what Luther Burbank did. He moved to California in the early 20th century with a uniquely large potato which he had grown from seed. Potato seed is as rare as hen’s teeth. A bazillion potatoes have since emanated from that one spud in Luther's lap. Later, he went on to grow a variety of fruit trees from seed. After waiting many years, he was able to gauge which trees were best of their kind. He then killed all the other trees of that type. He didn’t sell or give away the #2 trees. Burbank then went and propagated the #1 trees – and that’s where many of our favorite fruit types come from.

The plan for my #1 grapefruit and #1 avocado trees was similar: to propagate them and give baby trees to hill tribers for free. Propagating grapefruit is relatively easy, whereas grafting baby avo trees was proving difficult. I was in the process of trying to find a skilled local person to assist with that. That was around the time I got busted.

Another of the several gigs I was involved with was: starting and managing a rock climbing and adventure park. Just 7 minute drive from downtown Chiang Rai, Thailand, it was called Boomerang – due to the shape of its 1.6 acres (4 rai) if viewed from above. It operated from 2008 thru 2015. It was the only rock-climbing venue north of Chiang Mai. We had dozens of ‘top-rope’ routes interspersed along the array of beautiful limestone rock. Thousands of visitors had wonderful and safe experiences there. We also had 4 zip lines, up to 180 meters – which started on platforms built in to the rock walls – and ended in a grassy field. Added to that, we had a cable swing billed as ‘the biggest swing in Asia.’

After selling the rock-climbing adventure park, I had some added time, so I opted to be a one-on-one guide to the nearby Burmese border town.

Back to arrests in May 2018: Lwin and I had our wallets and money taken (never to be seen by us again) and were strong-armed up to a room – still surrounded by nearly two dozen black-clad thugs who claimed they were with Bangkok’s DSI. We also had our mobile phones taken. As with everything else taken from us by authorities, we never saw them again. While in the room, Lwin started to babble, saying repeatedly, I no boom-boom Ken. I never boom-boom him.

That was true. Though Lwin and I had been dear friends for several years, we had never been physical with each other. We did not 'know' each other in the Biblical sense. She was repeating her plea – in the presence of the plain-clothes cops, because she thought we were being accosted/busted for having sex together. I gently told her she was on the wrong track – and that the thugs were not busting us for having sex. Even months later, she still didn’t quite get the real reason we were busted.

It was a sting operation. I was the target. Lwin was peripheral damage. A faction of DSI; 20 black-clad Thai agents from Bangkok, were commandeered by 4 farang (foreign) men. Two dozen operatives went from Bangkok to Mai Sai with one goal in mind: to bust me. It was obvious who was running the show. It’s never difficult to pick out the alpha males in a group of men. How the farang co-opted 20 DSI agents and who knows how many supportive DSI members back at their Bangkok HQ – is open to speculation.

They had a collaborator named Jordan. He was a Malaysian who had just become Thai when I met him. We met several weeks before the bust. He must have been hired by the sting operators to lay some groundwork. He was a client of mine as regards the guide service I provided. He fully indulged in the delights of the border town red light district, as I dutifully waited outside on a bench. We got along rather well. He even had me get on the phone to talk to his infant adopted (legally?) daughter who was in Bangkok. There were several reasons which led me to deduce he was in on the sting:

He was the only client who had visited my property near Chiang Rai. He had expressed an interest in buying the property. I saw him taking a GPS reading at my house, but didn't put one and one together until after the bust. The day after my bust, DSI went to my house using GPS readings which they could only have garnered from Jordan. As outlined later in this text, DSI broke into my house illegally and stole items valued at roughly Bt.122k (us$4,000).

Jordan phoned me, two weeks after his tour with me (and two weeks prior to the bust) and asked if I could bring a young woman over the border illegally for him. I said No way! In hindsight, it was probably his attempt (with others in cahoots?) to set up a sting against me, but it didn't gel.

A few weeks later, I was waylaid by the two farang undercover buttplugs (associates of Jordan) in Mae Sai. They wanted to bust me for human trafficking and involving under-age girls in soliciting sex. They got neither, so they inverted their disappointment toward trumping up charges. Lwin was a cherry on the top of their sting operation. They didn’t expect a 2nd person to be involved but they were glad she showed up to be arrested. It fit with their unwritten goal of ruining lives of those who don't adhere to their God-fearing moral code.

DSI is above the law. Only the PM’s people and the Royal family out-rank them. In the same vein, DSI will not go after Thai VIP – for obvious reasons. DSI also trumps the police, the courts, and Immigration Dept.

After an hour at the room above the Thai Immigration (Imm) cubicle on the Thai side of the ‘Friendship Bridge’ Lwin and I were taken to the nearby Mae Sai police station. A short while later, the two working women showed up, and Lwin instinctively ran to them and all three wailed and cried for minutes – while hugging each other.

Let’s back up about 2.5 hours, so the scenario can be more readily understood. At 5:20 pm, I met two farang at the Chiang Rai airport. For weeks prior to that meet, I had an email correspondence with one. He had responded to a small notice I had placed on the internet. Or perhaps he had responded to an ad which a friend of mine (Frankie, now deceased), had put on Facebook several years earlier. This tidbit is significant, because it fueled the craving, by the farang undercover cops, to bust me.

Frankie had been fixing computer glitches on and off for months, and we’d become friends. When he heard I did guiding trips to the Burmese border town (Tachilek) by Mae Sai, he said he could help get added clients. I said ‘ok, do whatever, dude.’ He went and loaded a site on Facebook – for my little one-on-one guide service. When he showed it to me, I was unamused. Its title was; Burmese Border Chicks for Hire. I don’t think it brought any interested parties to my notice – particularly because its contact info was incorrect. I tried to delete the page but was unable. Frankie died months later in Bangkok. He was 52. So access to that web site died with him.

The responses to my guide service were garnered from a simple Craigslist ad with the title; ‘Guide to Burmese Border Town for Hire.’ For a number of years prior to placing that ad, I would visit Tachilek solo. I called it ‘my 24 hour vacation’ from Thailand. I preferred being in Burma for a variety of reasons. To name a few; the people were more ‘real,’ and less ‘put-on.’ If you meet 20 Burmese people, you’ll likely interact with 20 diverse personalities. If you meet 20 Thai folks, you’re apt to interact with one type of personality, because Thais are programmed to think alike.

Burmese read books. Thais are rarely seen reading books, unless it’s a comic or a study book for school. Another variance: Burmese interact with each other in their neighborhoods. One time I got to the border crossing 1 minute late. There were 3 women and one male officer - just about to leave. The man was open to processing (takes 2 minutes) and stamping my passport for the crossing. The women were not, so you can guess who prevailed.

I spent the night at a cheap hotel in Mae Sai, but strolled around the town for 1.5 hours after sundown. I saw about a dozen stragglers during the walk. Just 200 meters away, across the small river, in Burma, hundreds of locals were milling around at those same hours. They gossip, joke, and converse. All ages. It’s akin to how small cities vibrated dozens/hundreds of years ago. People like to interact in the cool hours of dusk. In Thailand, it seems as though everyone is inside – mostly watching TV, playing computers, or youngsters glued to their hand-held devices. Monitors rule.

When I would go to Burma for my 24 hour vacation, I'd visit temples. One temple has 365 roof faces (I counted them), and another has the largest gong this side of the Mississippi. I would stroll around town, visit the small red-light district, relax at tea houses (the snacks are better tasting and cheaper that those found in Thailand), and go trekking solo. The long hikes were particularly enjoyable. A person can walk on paths through the hills for hours, and not see another person, nor see or hear a vehicle, nor see a house, wall, fence, or electric line.

So I thought to turn other middle aged farang on to what I was experiencing at the Burmese border town. They could pay a fee – which would cover my expenses plus a bit left over. Win-win for all involved. DSI agents, after combing through my two computers, trying to dig as much dirt on me as possible – determined I had been a guide for 10 years – up until my arrest in the sting operation. Perhaps so, I don’t know, because I don’t keep records. It was a very small operation. I averaged one client every 8 to 10 weeks or so. There’s a file in my email account titled; ‘already gone’ which has about 13 names. 13 clients in 10 years ….go figure.

Obviously, I was not furrowing away bunches of 1,000 baht notes. Yet, the day after DSI busted me, they broke into my house in Chiang Rai (I had built and resided in for 19 years) and stole Bt.45,000 ($1,500). That cash was hidden away in a mason jar - not hidden well-enough apparently. I use the word ‘stole’ rather than ‘confiscated’ because I knew they would never return money they found – either within my wallet or anywhere else. Money taken by Thai authorities suffers the ratchet affect: they get it, they don’t return it. DSI claims the money they found in my house was ‘revenue garnered by my guiding service.’ Ridiculous. It was money I got from selling a beat up 2nd hand pick-up truck. It will never get returned to me.

2. Sad Night, May 2018

The farang who had Thai features was what Thai call ‘luk-krung,’ literally: ‘half fruit or half ball’ meaning: his mother was Thai and his father was farang. He draped himself with his NYC tough-guy mode and yelled at me for most of 8 hours. We were stuck with him, three other farang, and 20 DSI agents who were Bangkok Thais. One of the farang was a fat white man who didn’t do or say anything. He was supposed to be a translator, but I already had an able translator sitting next to me: a young Thai fellow named Art. He was part of the sting team, though he kept denying it - a silly lie designed to get me to open up.

The two farang undercover agents who had been in my car, one American and the other Australian, were hiding from me in a nearby room, while rummaging through my laptop computer. They must have been frustrated, because there was nothing incriminating on my laptop, except they were able to access my hotmail account – which I use for the guide service only. There were dozens of inquiries there, so the undercover farang could do added damage to others if they tried to incriminate men who sent email inquiries to me. If so, it’s a bitch if any of them suffered because of the sting operation against me.

There was another farang agent - whom I didn't meet. Methinks he was the mastermind of the sting. He was moderate height, slim with a cropped beard. I could see him lurking just out of reach. He was too cowardly to talk to me. All four farang were trying to find dirt to build a case against me and Lwin. There was nothing to be found, but it didn't abate their efforts.

For awhile, that awful night, the farang agents and Thai translator were trying to pressure me to reveal who was the head honcho behind the trafficking operation. Confucius say: Man cannot squeeze blood from turnip. It's doubtful a head honcho would stick around for ten years to mastermind a one-man tour-guide operation which garnered a few dollars a month.

Middle aged men are glad to pay a guide a modest fee to show them around a border town for a day or two. Why criminalize men for wanting to go to Burmese tea houses, go hiking around town, see the red-light district, get a change from their humdrum existence for a few hours? I can answer that question: The farang who busted me are not some cops who were hired to go to Thailand to bust people on trumped-up charges. No, they were very likely funded by right-wing Christian groups. Would they admit it if asked? Of course not. Nefarious people never admit things that would reflect badly upon themselves or the organizations which bankroll them.

From the time they contacted me, they lied non-stop. Admittedly lying is required in their line of work – yet they showed a bit of their true colors when the 3 of us were driving from the Chiang Rai airport to Mae Sai – a 70 minute trip. We took a 10 minute rest stop on the way. The American went off to make a phone call (he was always doing that. I found out later he was continually calling his fellow sting operatives). While standing under a fruit tree with the Aussie, he said to me; ‘have you been saved by Jesus?’

I shrugged it off with a grin. Of course, at that time I didn’t know they were undercover agents tasked with ruining my life. However, when we 3 got back in my car, I voiced a direct quote from Jesus (Matthew 10, vs 34,35): Do not assume that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword…. I was about to go on, but one of them cut me off with a look of consternation. For the record, the continuance of Jesus' soliloquy: I have come to turn son against father, and daughter against mother….). The guys in my car didn’t want to hear less-than-flattering quotes from their primary guru.

So they steered the conversation back to hearing from me, as much dirt as possible about the sex business in Burma.

Ok, they’re the clients (or so I thought at the time). They promised they would pay double my usual rate to be their tour