Dozens of cannabis vendors and farmers who cultivate this herb in Thailand protested this Monday in front of the Ministry of Health headquarters in Bangkok over the possibility that the use of marijuana will once again be penalized in the country, which at the end of June limited its consumption to medical purposes.
The protesters, who shouted slogans in favor of “freedom” for weed, displayed banners with the altered face of the Minister of Health, Somsak Thepsutin, who said that this drug would be reclassified as a narcotic in the future, after the country had experienced three years of free circulation of this substance.
The group denounced that the new controls announced by the Executive do not affect the consumer but the small business owner who invested money in a sector that was considered legal and that now runs the risk of being prohibited, which threatens thousands of operating stores throughout the country.
According to the local media Bangkok Post, the protesters handed a document to a health ministry official in which they asked to stop any attempt to recriminalize marijuana, whose possession, cultivation and consumption were punishable by imprisonment in previous decades.
On June 26th, the Government imposed restrictions on the recreational use of cannabis in an attempt to improve controls in the production and distribution chain of the herb, a process they estimate will take three months to complete.
More Read
The regulation classifies marijuana buds as “controlled herb” by law and states that anyone wishing to “study, investigate, export, sell, or process it” needs a license, although sales continue freely in stores in the capital, as EFE found.
The rule, which in principle does not specify penalties for non-compliance, allows medical professionals, traditional Chinese or Thai medicine practitioners, or a dentist to issue medical prescriptions for the consumption of marijuana.
In addition, it prohibits the sale of cannabis through the internet and vending machines, its trade in religious places or amusement parks, and the advertising of marijuana for commercial purposes on platforms such as social networks, among other measures.
Thailand became in 2022 the first Asian country to decriminalize the consumption of marijuana, which led in recent years to the opening of more than 10,000 stores related to this industry, flourishing especially in tourist areas, a business that the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce estimates could generate about 1.24 billion dollars in 2025.
