Group leaves health minister’s meeting after coming out of his purview for being too restrictive
PUBLISHED: 13 Jun 2024 at 18: 15
Cannabis supporters have pledged to hold a lengthy march the following month to protest the Ministry of Public Health’s program to reinstate the plant as a narcotic.
After its members walked out of a meeting on the subject with Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin on Wednesday, Prasitchai Nunual, writing Thai cannabis’s public minister, announced the organization’s intentions.
Prior to the conference, the group had been pressing the minister to pass a law governing the possession of marijuana and to establish a committee to conduct a study to determine whether a distinct cannabis act is necessary to manage the plant’s use.
The use of the plant may be governed by the Criminal Code, which imposes severe penalties for cannabis-related offenses, without a separate cannabis work.
Two years ago, cannabis was removed from the drug list without right laws governing its usage. The result was a rise in recreational marijuana use and the beginning of tens of thousands of stores all over the country that sold cannabis and related goods.
Prior to the previous government’s unsuccessful attempts to pass a cannabis costs, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has taken a tough stance and insisted that cannabis may be back on the cocaine record before the year is out.
Mr. Prasitchai urged the government to abandon its program to reclassify the factory as a narcotic, with the exception of situations where it could be demonstrated that legalization or decriminalization had been opposed to the interests of the people.
An hour into the conference, Mr Prasitchai and other members of the group staged a protest.
According to a cause close to the subject, he claimed Mr. Somsak was being too forceful on the agency’s announced walk and refusing to compromise.
Patients may experience
Prior to departing the meeting, Mr. Prasitchai warned that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin may ask at least 10,000 people who use traditional medicine based on cannabis to find justice.
If hemp is recriminalized, he said, and he warned that if Mr. Somsak had his way, people may not be able to increase the flower in their backyards for personal use.
Again marijuana is reclassified as a Category 5 drug, it can only be grown and harvested on a huge scale for medical and research purposes.
Critics claim that the plan essentially places the business in the hands of large corporations because such ventures are capital-intensive.
Mr. Prasitchai claimed that a particular businessman with close ties to a political party was considering starting a similar venture. He declined to expound.
He labeled as “scaremongers” those who made “fictitious” states and tales about people losing their sanity from cannabis use.
Before convergent on July 8 for a long march close to Government House to demand that cannabis laws be enforced in a way that is fair to the people, the network has vowed to stay lower for a while.
However, Mr. Somsak claimed that at least two governmental regulations would be required to outline legitimate methods for growing cannabis for medical and research purposes, which would require a license. These regulations would also need to be issued.
He forbids medical marijuana use for outdoor purposes.
” That’s where the problem lies. People smoke marijuana in open spaces, and those who are close to them are alarmed by the taste, the minister said.
The permanent secretary for public health, Opas Karnkawinpong, confirmed the president’s plan to boycott the personal production of the flower for personal use.