Sending troops into Burma is not an option just yet, but how long can Thailand tolerate the junta’s intransigence?
After months of relative quiet, the northern border once again has erupted into gun battles between Thai security forces and Wa militias who were hauling about one million methamphetamine pills over the border. Wednesday's incident ended in the death of nine alleged traffickers and the confiscation of about half of the drugs under a sting operation carried out by Thailand's anti-narcotic officers. Just hours after the clash, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra went on air to lash out at the Burmese government for not doing enough to put a lid on the illicit activities of their Wa allies.
The visibly angry prime minister even threatened to send troops into Burmese territory if Rangoon continues to turn a blind eye to the illicit trade of the 20,000-strong Wa, which the US State Department has labelled the "world's largest armed drug trafficking group". But this really should not be an option.
Despite border crossings in the past, there can be no justification for invading another country's territory, not the least because it will immediately close any other avenue that might offer the slightest chance of a resolution to the problem.
Ultimately, military action cannot be ruled out, but have we really reached the desperation point yet?
The clash took place shortly before dawn in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district, an area where opium and heroin - and over the recent years, methamphetamines - have for decades crossed into Thailand for distribution around the world.
The area is no stranger to violent clashes between Burmese armed groups and Thai forces. Consequently the Wa have become Thailand's public enemy number one, and more clashes are certain to follow.
Thaksin's reaction reflects his frustration over the continuing drug problem, despite the proclaimed success of his three-month war against drug traffickers - a controversial one because of allegations of extra-judicial killings among the more than 2,000 people killed.
The premier has tried everything. He has offered Rangoon an olive branch hoping that improved relations would somehow put the squeeze on the illicit activities of the Wa; he has put Bt25 million into a crop substitution project in a Wa-controlled area near the border, hoping that this seed money would make the Wa leaders see the light; he removed former Army chief General Surayudh Chulanont after major cross-border clashes in May last year in an attempt to appease the junta. On top of that, he even accused his own soldiers guarding the border of "overreacting".
Yet, nothing seems to work.
Perhaps it's time Thaksin re-assessed his drug policy. First of all, the amount of methamphetamine tablets confiscated and number of people killed should not be the benchmark for success. There are virtually limitless supplies of "legal" precursor chemicals feeding into drug labs producing methamphetamines tablets.
Second, if he and his advisers study the recent history of post-colonial Burma he will see that drugs and insurgencies have always been two sides of the same coin. It is no secret that many of these ethnic nationalities - regardless of whether they have entered a cease-fire agreement with Rangoon - have turned to opium and other illicit drugs to finance their armies.
No anti-drug policy can have any chance of success if Burma refuses to commit itself to a fair and lasting political settlement that is acceptable to all sides, be it the Wa, Shan, Karen, Mon, Chin, Kachin and so on.
Until there is an acceptable peace and political settlement - not just another of the ceasefire agreements that Rangoon likes to boast about - illicit drugs will continue, as it has always been, to be the source of income for many of these ethnic groups.