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Normally, a move like this is perfect for frustrated Thai politicians looking to win quick political points in times of desperation.

Well, that was true until Thaksin Shinawatra's first administration permitted the campaign to get bloody and out of hand, resulting in the death of nearly 3,000 people - deaths that authorities claimed were the result of bad guys killing bad guys.

Much of the participants at the yesterday's event came from the law-enforcement community, who must have been scratching their heads wondering if the body count of drug suspects would be the benchmark used to measure their success.

Somchai announced that in the next 90 days extensive crackdowns would be launched and the border would be strengthened to curb the flow of illicit drugs, though he fell short of directly pointing to Burma.

However, he did have the audacity to defend Thaksin's policy, calling the 2003 campaign a success despite its many controversial aspects.

He would not touch on the subject of extrajudicial killings, which may have won some brownie points from desperate parents, but was met by condemnation from the international community and human rights organisations.

Still, Somchai did make a couple of good points: that addicts should be treated humanely in spite of the grave social stigma and that drug abuse was indeed a social problem.

If the prime minister is to be believed - and let's hope he wasn't just reading out a speech written by someone else - then we are seeing a rare admission from the head of a Thai government that drug abuse is not just an issue of law and order.

Pinpointing a social ill and coming up with a remedy has not been easy for any leader or administration.

Of course, the list of social ills goes on. Thailand suffers from problems in education, poverty, unemployment, social mobility, a decline in the family as an institution and so on.

But for most governments and law-enforcement agencies, it is easier to talk about bad guys and drug busts.

The public consumes it like hot cakes despite knowing that not much has changed apart from the fact that a certain amount of narcotics has been removed from the streets.

It's easier to talk about drug busts because we don't have to talk about corrupt officials who either turn a blind eye to the activities, or the drug armies operating freely in the Burmese sector of the Golden Triangle.

We wouldn't dare ask the Burmese junta to take action, as it would disturb the bilateral ties between the two nations - which never trusted one another in the first place.