Thailand to grow opium, magic mushrooms to produce morphine, anti-depressants

Trisulee Trisaranakul, deputy government spokesperson, said the Cabinet gave the project proposed by the Justice Ministry the go-ahead on Tuesday.

The draft royal decree, which goes into effect as soon as it is announced in the Royal Gazette, has been scrutinised by the Council of State, which advises the government on legal matters.

The pilot project has won support from the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry, Interior Ministry, Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council and the Royal Thai Police.

The decree, once enforced, will allow the growing of opium inside the compound of the International Narcotics Control College in Chiang Rai’s Chiang Saen district. The college is run by the Office of Narcotics Control Board.

The decree will allow the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation to extract morphine from opium in its Bangkok and Pathum Thani labs, Trisulee said.

She added that the decree would also allow magic mushrooms to be grown in universities or educational institutions in four regions of the country, provided the institutions are deemed ready to make an anti-depressant from the extract on an experimental basis.

The spokesperson said the trial projects were approved with the goal of reducing Thailand’s reliance on imported morphine and anti-depressants.

Between 2018 and 2020, Thailand imported 400 million baht worth of morphine, Trisulee said.

She explained that magic mushrooms have two key substances – psilocybin and psilocin – which can be used to develop anti-depressant drugs.

Since magic mushrooms are classified as narcotics in Thailand, researchers have yet not been able to study their medicinal qualities.

Between 2015 and 2020, some 1.76 million people have been diagnosed with depression, Trisulee said, adding that producing its own drugs would help Thailand save a lot of money.