Thailand has proposed a new bill to regulate the cannabis industry that seemingly stops short of relisting the drug as a narcotic.
..
Thailand has proposed a new bill to regulate the cannabis industry that seemingly stops short of relisting the drug as a narcotic. Earlier this week, the country’s Ministry of Public Health, under the new government led by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, published the bill that it will keep open for public comments until September 30. The bill marks the latest in a series of lurching changes to the legal status of marijuana, which Thailand decriminalized in 2022.
Under the draft legislation, Bloomberg reported yesterday, “cannabis or its extracts will be allowed for medical treatment and research by state agencies besides its use in herbal, food, and cosmetic products.” Unlike previous drafts, the bill does not ban recreational cannabis outright and avoids reclassifying the plant as a narcotic.
Under the bill, non-medical consumption of cannabis could result in fines of up to 60,000 baht ($1,800), while unauthorized sales could lead to a year in jail or fines of up to 100,000 baht ($3,000). The legislation also tightens rules on the growing, selling and exporting of cannabis, which will now require new licenses or permits.
The legislation seems to mark a middle-ground between the punitive approach promised by the ruling Pheu Thai party at last year’s general election and the virtual free-for-all that has ensued since Thailand’s landmark decriminalization of cannabis in 2022.
While it was widely applauded for its progressive policy, decriminalization took place before there was a law in place to regulate the conditions around the cultivation and sale of the drug. Bhumjaithai did subsequently draft a bill to this end, but it did not come to a vote in parliament before the May 2023 general election.
The result was pandemonium. In a matter of months, thousands of marijuana dispensaries mushroomed, selling myriad strains of the plant, pre-rolled joints, and weed-infused gummies. According to the popular Weed Map, there are 9,498 marijuana dispensaries in Thailand. As conservatives stoked up a moral panic about drug use, particularly among the young, the Pheu Thai party took a hard line on marijuana, pledging during last year’s election campaign to ban recreational use.
Pheu Thai’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who was in office until last month, announced in May plans to reclassify cannabis as a “category five” narcotic that would make it a crime to grow, possess, or consume the plant. He pledged that the ban would be in place by the end of 2024. But the punitive plan, which remained on track as recently as mid-July, created a fracture within Srettha’s unsteady coalition government. In particular, the government faced internal pressure from the Bhumjaithai party, the second-largest member of the coalition, whose leader Anutin Charnvirakul, the public health minister under Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, was a key driving force behind its decriminalization.
There were already some signs that Pheu Thai was moving away from its punitive position on cannabis as a result of Bhumjaithai’s urging. In late July, Anutin said that Prime Minister Srettha had agreed to discuss plans for a draft bill to regulate the sale and use of cannabis, rather than banning it outright. While Bhumjaithai was never in favor of recreational use – Anutin’s main goal in decriminalizing cannabis was to generate a commercial industry around medical marijuana, to the benefit of his rural constituents – it rightly stated that “we need more studies on this matter before making such a drastic move.”
While even this watered-down legislation will pose serious challenges to Thailand’s weed industrial complex, and will likely be protested by industry figures and legalization advocates, the new bill does seem to represent a more sensible response than a return to the punitive approach that pertained prior to 2022. However, the the Public Health Ministry can still make changes to the legislation before it is submitted to the cabinet, and then to Parliament for approval. Given the chaotic nature of the country’s cannabis policymaking up until now, it would not be surprising if the law is subject to further tweaks and amendments before it is enshrined in the law.