Businesses can rest assured govt will not reverse ganja policy again

After Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra announced her policy to continue allowing the use of marijuana and hemp for medical and business purposes, businesspeople who have invested in making products from the two plants can rest assured the policy would not be reversed.

The policy statement delivered by Paetongtarn to Parliament last month prompted even Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin, who is seen as advocating the re-listing of marijuana and hemp as drugs, to tone down his stand while the policy announcement drew strong support from the Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine Department.

In his recent interview, Somsak said the Public Health Ministry would have to comply with the government’s policy and it would simply focus on protecting children.

“I’m not against it, but I’ll try to do my best to protect the people while promoting the businesses [related to the two plants],” Somsak said.

During the previous Srettha Thavisin government, Somsak had repeatedly vowed to relist hemp and marijuana as drugs as Category 5 narcotics to the dismay of a key coalition partner, Bhumjaithai Party, which had pushed for its decriminalisation during the tenure of the Prayut Chan-o-cha government.

Somsak claimed his ministry had received complaints that marijuana abuse had led to an increase in mental health issues, especially among teenagers, a claim doubted by ganja advocates who demanded proof in terms of real figures and statistics.

To end the uncertainty once and for all, Paetongtarn said in her policy statement delivered to Parliament on September 12 that her government would go ahead with the use of marijuana and hemp for medical and business purposes. She said the two plants could generate about 200 billion baht a year income for the country. 

After its delisting from the Category 5 Narcotics List on September 9 2022, only extraction of the two plants with THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol having concentration more than 0.2% is still regarded as a drug.

Only buds of marijuana and hemp are subject to control under the act to protect and promote the wisdom of Thai traditional medicine.

The use of other parts of the two plants, including branches, stems, seeds and leaves as well as fibres is allowed for medical purposes or for making products.

Paetongtarn also promised that her government would enact a bill to prevent the abuse of the two plants as narcotics.

The Public Health Ministry has recently held public hearings on the hemp and marijuana control bill. The bill has proposed three objectives of the use of the two plants:

▪︎ To treat, cure and alleviate pain and illness of people. The plants are to be used to enhance health or body systems to reduce illness or prevent diseases under the supervision of doctors, dentists, and traditional medicine practitioners.

▪︎ Use for studies and research for medical purposes or for medicine by government agencies, the Thai Red Cross and universities with medical or pharmaceutical faculties.

▪︎ Use as herb, medicine, foods, cosmetics, and other products that will be specified by the bill.

Dr Thewan Thanirat, deputy director-general of the Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine Department, recently expressed support for the planned enactment of a bill to control the use of hemp and marijuana.

Thewan said the bill would create confidence among medical personnel and the general people that the government would have measures to prevent their misuse while the businesses could be assured that their businesses would not be affected by the reversal of policies.

“Now ganja is on the ground, so I don’t want to see it be put underground again,” Thewan said.

“If it were to be utilised correctly with good standards, it would generate medical benefits and generate huge economic value in line with the government’s policy.”

Thewan advised those who want to cultivate hemp and marijuana for sales to factories to have good knowledge of the product.

He said his department was willing to dispatch teams to provide advice to farmers for the planting.

Factories that wanted to extract oil from hemp and marijuana needed to receive licences from the Food and Drug Administration and make sure that their extracted oil would have less than 0.2% of THC, Thewan said.

Thewan said that his department had selected hemp as the herb for Chiang Mai province and ganja as the herb for Sakon Nakhon province as part of the announcement of 15 herbal champions around the country.

Now that the government has done away with uncertainties over the two hemps, observers said it was yet to be seen whether businesses would respond to the policy to generate huge income for the country as ambitiously eyed by the government.