The Supreme Court has dismissed the charges against 6 Kalasin police officers over the hanging of a 17-year-old youth, who allegedly stole a motorcycle during the drug war.  It stated that witness testimony was unreliable, unconvincing and not credible, and gave the accused the benefit of the doubt.

Academics and ethnic minorities in northern Thailand have demanded protection for the relatives of a young Lahu activist summarily killed by a soldier and witnesses of the killing.     A network of academics and a number of ethnic minority groups from Chiang Mai on 24 April 2017 issued a joint statement over the summary killing of Chaiyapoom Pasae, a young ethnic Lahu activist who was shot dead by a soldier on 17 March.

Not even a month after the summary killing of Chaiyapoom Pasae, a 17-year-old Lahu activist, on 17 March 2017, paramilitary officers and soldiers shot dead two insurgent suspects in the restive Deep South. The authorities claimed that the two resisted arrest and exchanged gunfire with the officers. However, the sister of one of the slain insurgent suspects said they were unarmed and shot point blank after they were asked to step out of their car.

A police commissioner has concluded that a young Lahu activist summarily killed was a drug dealer and has warned people who criticise the authorities over the killing that they could face defamation charges.    On 22 March 2017, Pol Lt Gen Poolsap Prasertsak, Region 5 Police Commissioner, announced that officers will investigate comments on social media about the summary killing of Chaiyapoom Pasae, a 17-year-old Lahu activist.

More than ten years after the war on drugs wreaked havoc on many Lahu ethnic minority families in the hilly northern Thai-Myanmar border, arbitrary abuses and discrimination from Thai state authorities continue as they struggle to come to terms with their traumatic past.