Srettha changes his mind about outlawing marijuana
Cannabis will not return to the list of Category 5 Narcotics, but will be regulated under a new law, says a Government House source
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Tuesday backed down from his election promise to outlaw marijuana and instead instructed the public health minister to devise a way of regulating its use.
A Government House source said Srettha had met Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul before the weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after the two voiced very different opinions on the future of marijuana.
According to the source, Srettha instructed Somsak to push for a bill to regulate the use of marijuana instead of reinstating the plant on the list of Category 5 Narcotics. The aim of the bill should be to ensure marijuana is used for medical purposes, research and for certain products.
The ruling Pheu Thai Party has been going back and forth on marijuana, even though it promised voters while campaigning for the 2023 election that it would relist it as a narcotic.
Earlier this year, Srettha himself said that marijuana would be added to the list of narcotics as it affected many youths. However, then-public health minister Cholnan Srikaew got back, saying marijuana will be regulated, not outlawed.
Yet, after Somsak replaced Cholnan in a Cabinet reshuffle in late April, the new minister began insisting that marijuana would be outlawed – much to the dismay of Anutin.
Last month, a Public Health Ministry committee in charge of controlling narcotics, voted to relist marijuana as a drug, prompting Anutin to cry foul. He noted that it was this very panel that had voted to decriminalise the plant when he was public health minister two years ago.
Then came a report that Anutin met Pheu Thai patriarch, ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, at a resort in Nakhon Ratchasima over the weekend, fuelling speculation that he was seeking Thaksin’s intervention on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Thailand Cannabis Future Network, which advocates the use of marijuana, issued a statement thanking Srettha for changing his stance. The group said it will continue monitoring the issue until the government enacts a bill to regulate the use of marijuana instead of outlawing it.
