BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand has made it legal to grow and possess marijuana as of Thursday, a dream come true for an aging generation of weed smokers who remember the thrill of the legendary Thai Stick variety.
The country’s health minister’s stated intention to distribute 1 million marijuana seedlings from Friday has heightened the impression that Thailand is turning into a weed wonderland.
But for now, potential marijuana tourists will be disappointed. Thailand is the first country in Asia to decriminalize marijuana — also known as cannabis, or ganja in local parlance — but it’s not following the lead of Uruguay and Canada, the only two countries to date to have legalized recreational marijuana nationally. base.
The government has said it promotes cannabis for medical use only and is warning those who like to light up for fun that smoking in public can still be considered a nuisance, facing a possible three-month jail term and a Thai Baht 25,000 fine. $780). And extracted content remains illegal if it contains more than 0.2% tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical that gets people high.
That’s about the same amount as in hemp, a cannabis strain grown primarily for fiber used for industrial purposes.
So far, it appears that no effort will be made to control what people can grow and smoke at home, other than registering to do so and decanting it for medical purposes. But commercial cannabis products cannot exceed the limit.
Thailand wants to make a splash in the medical marijuana market. It already has a well-developed medical tourism industry and the tropical climate is ideal for growing cannabis.
“We should know how to use cannabis,” Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, the country’s largest marijuana booster, said recently. “If we have the right awareness, cannabis is like gold, something valuable, and it should be promoted.”
But he added: “We will receive additional Ministry of Health notifications from the Ministry of Health. If it causes a nuisance, we can use that law (to stop people from smoking).”
He said the government prefers to “build an awareness” that would be better than patrolling to control people and using the law to punish them.
“Everything should be in the middle ground,” Anutin said at a press conference ahead of the decriminalization Thursday.
Economic benefits are at the heart of the marijuana reforms, which are expected to boost everything from the national income to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. But there is concern about whether the benefits will be distributed fairly.
One of the fears is that large companies could be unfairly served by proposed regulations with complicated licensing processes and expensive commercial use fees that would penalize small producers.
“We have seen what happened to the alcohol trade in Thailand. Only large-scale producers are allowed to monopolize the market,” said Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, a legislator of the opposition Move Forward party. “We fear the same thing will happen to the cannabis industry if the rules are in favor of big companies,” his party now wants to draft laws to tackle the problem.
Either way, small operators are eager to get into the marijuana industry.
On a hot Sunday afternoon in the Sri Racha district of eastern Thailand, Ittisug Hanjichan, owner of Goldenleaf Hemp, a cannabis farm, held his fifth training session for 40 entrepreneurs, farmers and retirees. They paid about $150 each to learn tips on how to trim seed coats and care for the plants to get quality yields.
“I believe this new market crop will be an avenue for Thailand to revive its COVID-19-affected economy,” said Ittisug, whose nickname is Boy.
One of his students was 18-year-old Chanadech, who said his parents berated him for trying to secretly grow marijuana plants.
He said his father has changed his mind and now sees marijuana as a drug rather than something to abuse. The family runs a small homestay and cafe and hopes to one day provide cannabis to their guests.
Gloria Lai, Asia Regional Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium, a network of more than 190 civil society organizations around the world advocating drug policies “based on principles of human rights, health and development,” sees liberalization of marijuana laws as a good thing. step that economic opportunities for rural communities.
“From our perspective, a major positive outcome of the law changes is that at least 4,000 people imprisoned for cannabis-related offenses will be released, those facing cannabis-related charges will see them dropped, and money and cannabis confiscated. taken from people accused of cannabis-related offenses will be returned to their owners,” Lai said in an emailed interview.
