Children in Thailand able to buy cannabis under new drug laws

THAILAND has hastily tightened its drug laws after a move to decriminalise cannabis inadvertently made it legal for children to buy it and created a huge increase in its usage nationwide.

Soon after the country became the first in Asia to legalise the growing and consumption of cannabis in food and drink on June 9, businesses began openly selling marijuana, with strains called “Amnesia” and “Night Nurse” on offer from a truck in Bangkok.

Restaurants were allowed to sell cannabis-infused dishes in restaurants, and some took to social media to show off the cannabis cakes they had baked.

The rapid rise in cannabis sales sparked concern from a Bangkok city official, Deputy permanent secretary Wantanee Wattana. He said at least one person had died and several were hospitalised last week after consuming or smoking marijuana.

A draft cannabis bill is making its way through parliament, but could be months away from becoming law.

“There are no control measures other than word of mouth,” lamented Mana Nimitmongkol, head of the AntiCorruption Organisation (Thailand), in an online post earlier this week.

This week, the central government has been issuing rules to try to bring some order. On Friday, new regulations went into effect forbidding the smoking of cannabis in public as well as its sale to people under the age of 20, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.

The rules were published overnight in the Royal Gazette. Several other rules included banning cannabis from schools, a requirement for retailers to provide clear information on usage of cannabis in food and drinks and the application of a health law that defined smoke from marijuana as a public nuisance punishable by jail and a fine.

Critics have said the government rushed to remove criminal penalties on marijuana before passing a law to ensure the substance is regulated.

Thailand’s health minister Anutin Charnvirakul, an advocate for the legalisation of cannabis, has defended the government’s approach to legalisation.

“We legalised cannabis for medical use and for health,” Mr Charnvirakul said at Government House on Friday. “Usage beyond this are inappropriate... and we need laws to control it,” he said.

According to a BBC report, Thailand hopes decriminalisation will benefit the emerging Asian market of cannabisbased medical treatment and therapies.