SANGHA’S ROLE IN DRUG PROBLEM PREVENTION IN MUEANG DISTRICT, RATCHABURI PROVINCE

Abstract

The research article was to study: 1. Sangha’s role, 2. Comparison of the opinions, and 3. Study problems, obstacles, and suggestions of sangha’s role in drug problem prevention in Mueang district, Ratchaburi Province, conducted with the mixed research methods that the quantitative research used the questionnaire as the tool to collect the data in the field study from 283 samples who were monks in Mueang District, Ratchaburi Province. The qualitative research collected data from document and interviewing 7 key informants and analyzed the data by the content analysis technique.

Findings were  that 1. Sangha’s role, by overall, was at high level, 2. Monks with Dhamma education had different opinions with statistically  significant level at 0.05. And 3. Problems and obstacles were overlapping work with government agencies. There should be coordination collaboration between communities, monasteries and schools, and some monasteries were hotbeds of teenagers and drug addicts. There should  be measures to prevent mingling in the monasteries.