Activists, producers fret over relisting
PUBLISHED: 9 Jul 2024 at 04: 52
Cannabis supporters want the government to establish a committee to examine the effects of the flower before reclassifying it as a opiate.
The investigation should include physical health, mental wellbeing, its effects on society, and its medicinal benefits, according to Prasitchai Nunual, the writing Thai cannabis’s ‘ potential group’s secretary-general, which protested near Government House on Monday.
He claimed that a special rules may be passed to control its use if the results showed that cannabis ‘ effects are no worse than those of alcohol and tobacco.
If the results suggest then, the herb may be controlled as a narcotic.
” A council should study the issue. According to him, the information may get established and made available for public viewing.
Mr. Prasitchai added that the change in the hemp plan is an attempt by some government officials to advance the interests of significant players who stand to gain from the reclassification of marijuana as a narcotic in the name of safeguarding people’s well-being.
The commission overseeing illegal drugs at the Public Health Ministry last year voted in favor of reclassifying cannabis and flax, with the exception of their branches, foliage, roots, and seeds, as opioid drugs.
Cannabis buds and any materials containing more than 0.2 % tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC ) will once again be criminalised.
The demonstrators also threatened to expose alleged links between powerful politicians, especially those in the Pheu Thai Party authority, and powerful economic groups.
In the meantime, a community organization in the Phimai region of Nakhon Ratchasima is urging the government to support small-scale cannabis businesses that have been hampered by the president’s failure to convert it into a new cash crop.
Thongchai Posawang, the head of a community organization that cultivates health hemp, stated that the group has a memorandum of understanding with the Thai Department of Traditional and Alternative Medicine.
But, growing cannabis for clinical use costs a lot, he said, adding that the company has suffered significant losses and has no hope of recovering the investment it made.
The team is now concerned about whether farmers will still be able to develop the herb, he said.
We’d prefer to know what steps the government will take to assist farmers who abandoned their plan promises, he said.
Does the government permit farmers to cultivate cannabis for research and health purposes after this? he added.
According to Mr Thongchai, the neighborhood organization was established in 2020, and more than 230 producers joined.