The people of Thailand will no longer need government permission to grow cannabis from today, indicating a major policy change in a country long known for its strict drug controls.
Key points:
- The Thai government wants to promote marijuana as a commercial crop
- As the change aims to enable cannabis in traditional medicine and cooking, recreational use remains a gray area.
- The global legal cannabis market is expected to be worth $ 175.5 billion in 2028
In January this year, the Thai authorities announced that they were removing cannabis from the official list of controlled substances, which led to what some have described as de facto decriminalization.
Some 4,000 inmates serving prison terms for cannabis-related crimes will be released soon and their criminal records for those crimes will be eliminated, the Department of Corrections said.
Thai Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul last month announced on Facebook his intention to give away 1 million cannabis plants to members of the public.
“It’s an opportunity for people and the state to make a living from marijuana and hemp,” he wrote, alongside a photo of canned chicken seasoned with cannabis.
“Roast chicken with marijuana, 300 baht ($ 12) per piece. Anyone can sell it if they comply with the law,” Anutin added.
“This is the future of Thai cannabis.”
Thai authorities are encouraging the culinary use of cannabis. (Facebook: Anutin Charnvirakul)
Mr Anutin, who first announced the new policy in 2021, said at the time that families could grow up to six cannabis plants, in order to supply the crop to public hospitals, research facilities or for for use in the production of food or cosmetics.
By law, any cannabis extract must have a concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of marijuana, less than 0.2%.
Large-scale producers need government permits.
Kitty Chopaka, a Bangkok-based cannabis businesswoman, will begin selling cannabis flowers at her store on Saturday, after the plant was formally removed from the Thai authorities’ list of controlled substances.
Ms Chopaka, who sells jelly beans with terpene infusion, told ABC that the changes meant the plant would “become as free as garlic, as chilli.”
“But that doesn’t mean there are no rules. It just means the rules are in process … depending on how long it will take in parliament,” he said.
A comprehensive law regulating cannabis has not yet been passed in parliament.
Ms Chopaka said private cannabis and hemp companies established in recent years had failed to be listed on the Thai stock exchange, which had hampered their ability to attract investment.
Kitty Chopaka’s store sells jelly beans with terpene infusion. (ABC News: Mazoe Ford)
And because it was expensive to set up the infrastructure for cannabis extraction, it cost between 100 and 300 million baht ($ 4-12 million), the growth of the industry and its export market had slowed. , he said.
“As much as I complain about all the rules and regulations that are sometimes not fair, there are things that need to be done,” Chopaka added.
In a separate Facebook post earlier this month, Anutin said the policy focused on “health and medical use, not entertainment.”
He stressed that, unlike alcohol and cigarettes, cannabis has benefits if used “prudently”, and the change in law was not intended to allow it to be used for intoxication.
Sanctions for creating “public nuisance” with recreational use still apply, he said.
Offenders reported to the authorities could face up to three months in prison or fines of up to 25,000 baht.
‘A gift for the people’
Like many of its neighbors, Thailand had long imposed severe sanctions on the possession and use of cannabis, among other drugs, despite a long history of local marijuana use for medicinal and culinary purposes.
But the kingdom became the first Southeast Asian country to legalize medical cannabis in 2018.
The government at the time described the change as a “New Year’s gift” for the Thai people.
Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul speaks alongside government mascot Dr Ganja at the opening of Bangkok’s first official medical cannabis clinic in 2020. (Reuters: Jorge Silva)
Authorities expect Thai farmers and businessmen to benefit from crop production, taking advantage of a global legal cannabis market that is expected to be worth $ 91.5 billion ($ 175.5 billion) by 2028, according to Grand View Research, a downtown San Francisco. company based.
In 2020, the government launched the first cannabis clinic in Bangkok, after approving the use of cannabis extracts for the treatment of conditions such as cancer, epilepsy and anxiety.
Jiratti Kuttanam, a single mother who fights breast cancer uses cannabis as an analgesic, drinks it with tea and smokes it.
He said it had taken “too long” for Thailand to withdraw cannabis as a controlled substance.
“I’m so happy that I don’t have to hide anymore to buy or use it,” Ms Kuttanam, who plans to grow her own marijuana, told ABC.
Jiratti Kuttanam makes cannabis tea every day to relieve pain. (ABC News: Mazoe Ford)
“It’s painful (the disease) and I don’t want to take painkillers all the time,” he said, adding that cannabis helped him sleep and maintain a healthy appetite.
“It’s not painful at all after using it.”
Ms Kuttanam said the government should educate members of the public on how to grow marijuana properly so that they can grow marijuana themselves, instead of paying money to large-scale growers.
Concern about corruption
A March 2022 YouGov poll showed that 76% of Thais were aware of commercially available cannabis products, while almost half had used a cannabis-containing product for the past two years.
People attend a cannabis show in 2021 in Buriram Province, Thailand. (Reuters: Athit Perawongmetha / File)
Ms Chopaka said she was willing to pay her sales taxes after the withdrawal.
But Sarana Sommano, an associate professor of agriculture at Chiangmai University, warned that the changes did not mean that Thailand was welcoming recreational cannabis use.
He said that while some ministers had talked about cannabis use to the public, this was “misleading” and the comments were made for political purposes as it “approached the end of the government’s term”.
Thailand ‘s next national election is scheduled for 2023.
Dr. Sommano said that the current registration system for producers was open to corruption and that, while in principle supporting the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, she considered that “the nation does not get anything out of it. “.
He said companies had to pay to get permission to grow cannabis and that rates were “not cheap” and permits needed to be renewed.
Corruption remains a major issue in Thailand, ranking 110th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2021.
“So who will benefit from all this?” Dr. Sommano asked, adding that plans for control and “misuse” of cannabis were unclear.
Recreational cannabis use is legal in some states in the United States, Canada, Uruguay, South Africa, Mexico, and the Australian Capital Territory.
It is legal to own up to 50 grams of cannabis and to grow and consume cannabis at home in the ACT from 2019.
Meanwhile, medical marijuana prescriptions in Australia have increased substantially in recent years.
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