Wat Tham Krabok has received global attention for its heroin and opium drug rehabilitation program, which was started in 1959.
A number of Western drug users have sought treatment for their addictions at Wat Tham Krabok, In 2002 Stuart Brindley[2] became the first methadone addict from the UK to be treated at the monastery while other Westerners including British punk rock musician Pete Doherty, Irish rock music singer Christy Dignam of Aslan, American computer underground personality Patrick K. Kroupa, and British singer songwriter Tim Arnold.
[3][4] After completing his programme Arnold subsequently became a permanent Tham Krabok resident and favourite of the monastery's abbot, Luang Por Charoen.
In the late 1970s, Wat Tham Krabok, and particularly its abbot, Luang Por Chamroon, supported Hmong armed resistance against the Lao PDR government, particularly the Neo Hom led by General Vang Pao and other Laotian leaders, independent Chao Fa groups, and one sub-faction of the Chao Fa led by Pa Kao Her.
Starting in 1993, the Washington, D.C.–based The Centre for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), and its Executive Director, Philip Smith, made over seven research missions to Wat Tham Krabok and Laotian and Hmong refugee camps in Thailand.
These joint US congressional and CPPA research missions sought to review policy developments in Thailand and Laos, and to convey humanitarian offers of support and assistance to the abbot, temple monks, and Hmong and Laotian refugee leaders, from members of congress and international human rights organizations.
For over a decade, prominent members of congress, in bipartisan fashion, also supported US-backed research missions by Philip Smith and the CPPA to Wat Tham Krabok, and the Laotian and Hmong refugee camps along the Mekong River and Thai-Lao border.
Responding to these concerns, the Thai military deployed hundreds of troops to surround Wat Tham Krabok in April 2003.
The Thai military and police fenced in the Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok with concertina wire in an effort to monitor and control entrance to it, before they were able to immigrate to the US in 2004 and 2005.