Bhumjaithai sets support for ganja bill as condition to support next government
Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul said his party would join the next government only if the coalition partners promised to enact the marijuana and hemp bill.
Anutin set the condition for joining the next coalition while he was campaigning for his party on Wednesday evening.
During the run-up to the 2019 general election, Anutin had promised to decriminalise marijuana so that it could be used for medical purposes and for making business products.
During the rally on Wednesday, Anutin said Bhumjaithai had kept its pre-election promise when the party controlled the Public Health Ministry.
Anutin, who is now public health minister of the outgoing government, said that after ganja was decriminalised, the Public Health Ministry had issued a directive to control its use for medical and business purposes.
He said the directive could actually control the use but Bhumjaithai also proposed the draft to make the control more effective and to reduce public worries of marijuana abuse.
He said the Bhumjaithai-sponsored bill was seen as perfect by a special House committee with representatives from all parties and the number of its articles doubled from 45 to 95.
However, Anutin said politicking by certain coalition partners, which feared Bhumjaithai’s popularity ahead of the May 14 election, resulted in the ganja bill failing to clear the second reading in time.
He noted that the representatives of all parties in the House panel had agreed with the new articles added to the original draft but political jealousy had caused the bill to lapse.
He said Bhumjaithai would definitely resubmit the vetted draft of the ganja bill to the next House of Representatives, while urging voters to elect his party candidates so that they could propose the bill again.
