PUBLISHED: 13 May 2024 at 18: 30
By the end of this year, public health secretary Somsak Thepsutin expects the authorities to reinstate cannabis on the drug list.
” ]PM Srettha Thavisin ] has given the ministry until the end of this year to reclassify cannabis as a narcotic”, he said. ” The sooner, the better”.
When asked whether he had any knowledge to reject a past government’s decision to decriminalise marijuana while serving as justice minister in the partnership, Mr. Somsak said he was a member of the coalition government at the time and had not received enough evidence to support it.
A governmental rules governing the farming and storage of cannabis will be published, according to Mr. Somsak. He said he will speak with thc industry executives and pro-cannabis activists to get their views before the regulations are made.
Pro-cannabis teams are threatening to stage a protest at the Ministry of Public Health’s Bangkok office on Thursday to demonstrate why hemp deserves to be reclassified.
Before any action can be taken, Anutin Charnvirakul, the interior minister, stated on Monday that the program to reclassify marijuana as a narcotic will need to be studied and evaluated by various health boards.
But, Mr Anutin, head of the partnership partner Bhumjaithai Party, who advocated for the decriminalisation of hemp, said that he will accept the outcome if those sections favour classification. ” We may accept the decision. The problem will not have any containing on Bhumjaithai’s engagement with the coalition government. Do n’t politicise the cannabis issue”.
Prior to the 2019 election, Bhumjaithai made one of the most important promises:” the hemp liberalization.”
In a later statement in the Royal Gazette of June 2022, the plant was removed from Category 5 of the cocaine law, with the exception of compounds containing more than 0.2 % THC, the substance responsible for the psychotropic effect.
Some doctors, scientists and protesters have issued an open letter to up the administration’s plan to reclassify hemp as a opiate. They claimed that decriminalization has long-term negative effects.