Chiang Mai, Thailand (CNN) — Kneeling beside a gutter within a walled compound adjoining a complex of golden-roofed temples, 50 men in red pajamas with the word "overcome" on the back are sweating under the midday sun.
The temple herbalist dispenses shots of a thick, brown liquid that his assistant pours down their throats. They swallow with a wince. In the background, recovering patients are banging on cymbals and tambourines.
The music stops and the kneeling men gulp large cups of water and begin vomiting into the gutter. An Irishman, whose features belie years of drug abuse, is retching on all fours next to a Thai teenager who is shaking from meth withdrawal symptoms.
This is Thamkrabok, a Buddhist monastery located 140 kilometers (86 miles) north of Bangkok, which specializes in treating drug addiction.
"We usually have around 50 drug addicts and alcoholics, including about 10 Westerners," says Mae Chee Katrisha, a British ex-heroin addict-turned-Buddhist nun, who is in charge of foreign patients.
In recent years, prior to travel restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 crisis, Thailand has become a leading destination for addicts from all over the world.
Some undergo radical detoxes like the one offered at Thamkrabok; others choose to head to a luxury rehab in the country's jungle-clad northern mountains. The facilities offer a relatively inexpensive alternative to Western treatments. But some experts warn that detoxing in a tropical setting far from home can be dangerous and increases the risk of relapse.
Secret recipe for detox
Thamkrabok is a sprawling complex of white-pillared temples, oversized Buddha statues made of black lava stone and small cottages used to house monks and nuns.
Founded in the late 1950s by local nun Luang Poh Yaai and her two nephews, the monastery soon turned to treating addictions. "The government had just criminalized the use of opium and local farmers were showing up at the monastery asking for help to wean themselves off it," recalls Vichit Akkachitto, the vice abbot of Thamkrabok.
Peter Suparo is a British monk who first came to the monastery in 2002.
Julie Zaugg/CNN
One of the first foreigners to make his way to Thamkrabok in the 1970s was a US Vietnam war veteran called Gordon, who ordained as a monk and took care of the handful of Western patients who started streaming into its gates, after hearing -- usually through word of mouth -- about the radical rehab offered there.
In the 1990s, organizations in the UK and Australia began to send drug users to the monastery. "Today, most people find out about us online," says Akkachitto.
Foreign patients have to commit to spending at least seven days at Thamkrabok. Apart from basic food costs -- around $20 a day -- they don't have to pay for anything.
"Whereas the locals are mostly addicted to crystal meth and yaba (pills containing meth and caffeine), foreigners take a mix of heroin, cocaine, meth and alcohol," says Peter Suparo, a British
