On 9 June, the cultivation of cannabis trees has been legalised by the Thail government and households can now grow the plant in the comfort of their home.
Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise cannabis for medical research and use, which was done back in 2018.
After the government allowed the use of cannabis in commercial products, several products, including drinks and cosmetics in Thailand contained hemp and CBD, a compound that does not give users a high.
However, the Thai government is taking it a step further by distributing 1 million free cannabis plants to households across the nation.
The free cannabis plant programme was announced by its health minister Anutin Charnvirakul as the government promote cannabis as a cash crop among its citizen, with one-third of the country’s labour force works in agriculture.
The Thai health minister also clarified that the plant will have to be of medical grade and used exclusively for medicinal purposes. Additionally, cannabis cannot be used for commercial purposes without further licenses.
He also said that registered companies will be allowed to sell cannabis products that contain less than 0.2 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the part of the plant responsible for getting people high.
“This will enable people and the government to generate more than 10 billion baht per year in revenue from marijuana and hemp,” Anutin said.
As for Malaysia, there had been increasing calls for the government to allow the cultivation of cannabis as well as the ketum plant due to the high demand, especially for medical purposes.
Recently, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced that the Health Ministry is ready to collaborate with any parties to study the usage of marijuana and cannabis in medicine, which suggested that Malaysia too may consider legalising cannabis in the near future.
