Thailand turning seized Cannabis into Medicines
Royal Thai Embassy
Thailand’s drug-fighting agency said last
week it would distribute 24 tons of seized
marijuana to institutions to manufacture
cannabinoid medicines until harvests from
legal cannabis farms are ready.
Thailand recently passed legislation to
legalise and regulate the production of
cannabis for use in making medicines and for
patients with a legitimate and documented
medical need for cannabis.
The Kingdom is the first country in Southeast
Asia to take that step.
Thousands of people have registered with the
government under an amnesty as patients that
need cannabis for their medical conditions.
A process is underway to determine if each
patient’s need is valid.
Meanwhile, advocates of medical marijuana
are calling for further liberalisation.
One medium-size political party campaigned
on the issue in the recent national election,
saying it meets patients’ needs and would be
a lucrative industry.
Niyom Termsrisuk, secretary-general of the
Office of the Narcotics Control Board, told a
press conference last week that his agency has
24 tons of cannabis that police had seized
from drug dealers in recent months and the
Board is ready to hand them over to
institutions registered with the government to
manufacture
medicines
containing
cannabinoids.
“We are sure we can hand over the cannabis
in our possession to registered organisations
for producing cannabinoid medicines by the
end of this month,” Niyom said.
The agency will have to inspect and test the
cannabis first, he added, to ensure it does not
contain pesticides or other harmful
substances. The government has licensed
several farms or plantations to grow cannabis
for medical purposes, but as the changes in the
law are a few months old, those crops are not
yet ready to harvest .
https://thaiembdc.org/2019/05/30/thailand-
turning-seized-cannabis-into-medicines/