On Tuesday, Thailand\u2019s parliament voted to legalize medical marijuana, becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to embrace a liberalization of cannabis drug policy. The parliament executed the policy change by modifying the country\u2019s 1979 Tax Act, in a vote of 166 to 0, to allow the production, import, export, possession and use of cannabis under medical supervision.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s ruler, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, must approve the decision for it to be finalized. Using the plant recreationally remains illegal, and still carries with it the penalty of up to five years in prison for possessing less than 10 kilograms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a New Year\u2019s gift from the National Legislative Assembly to the government and the Thai people,\u201d said Somchai Sawangkarn, chairman of the drafting committee, in a televised parliamentary session, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n
The policy change is expected to go into effect in the new year, which the Huffington Post reports<\/a> will occur when the new law is published in the Government Gazette, the nation\u2019s public newspaper.<\/p>\n Reuters noted that\u00a0Thailand had a long history with medical marijuana<\/a>\u00a0up until the 1930s. Previous to that, Thais had traditionally used cannabis to treat aches and pains. But like many of their peers in Asia (and across the globe), they followed the trend of criminalization for the rest of the century when it came to cannabis.<\/p>\n One of the big stories around Thailand<\/a> legalizing medical cannabis isn\u2019t necessarily about the government coming to the conclusion that the plant has medical value, but the fear of outside influences taking over an industry that doesn\u2019t even exist yet. Many activists expressed worry that outside companies might come in and attempt to take over the whole market \u2014 particularly through patents on genetics, leaving locals little to gain fiscally from the new industry.<\/p>\n Panthep Phuaphongphan, a medicine professor at Rangsit University, said in an extended\u00a0Facebook post<\/a> written in Thai that\u00a0one of the most confusing parts of the new medical marijuana law is whether outside entities would be able to patent specific cannabinoids or Thailand\u2019s famous landrace genetics.<\/p>\n Those famed Thai genetics tend to lean heavily on the sativa side. The tall string-bean-esque Thai strains are the opposite of their short and stout cousins from Afghanistan\u2019s kush producing regions. The\u00a0Landrace Team<\/a>, a seed company specializing in landrace strains, sourced their stain Thai Hill locally in Thailand. Acquired at 500 meters above sea level, it\u2019s said to smell of sweet carrots and tropical fruit. You can see why Thais with a clue about good pot genetics might want to protect their national cuts, as opposed to letting the more business-minded folks in parliament act too fast.<\/p>\n Phuaphongphan specifically called for Thai officials to rescind any cannabis patents filed before today\u2019s vote. He feared that waiting until the law was changed would open up Thais to costly legal challenges after the companies could argue for new protections under the new law.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s warn on this occasion that such ideas are random, risk harm to the nation and will make Thailand lose enormous benefits from these patents,\u201d said Phuaphongphan.<\/p>\n Thailand\u2019s largest marijuana advocacy network is also worried about the ramifications of the patent.<\/p>\n \u201cGranting these patents is scary because it blocks innovation and stops other businesses and researchers from doing anything related with cannabis,\u201d Chokwan Kitty Chopaka of Highland Network told\u00a0Reuters<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month, when the passage of the new legislation looked imminent.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b>\u00a0have you ever smoked a Thai landrace strain?<\/p>\n The post Thailand\u2019s Parliament Legalizes Medical Marijuana Unanimously<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Thailand\u2019s parliament voted to legalize medical marijuana, becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to embrace a liberalization of cannabis drug policy. The parliament executed the policy change by modifying the country\u2019s 1979 Tax Act, in a vote of 166 to 0, to allow the production, import, export,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6591,50,4473,6887,687,53,139,6184,128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31685,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31684\/revisions\/31685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Protecting Thai Cannabis Genetics<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Thailand\u2019s Parliament Legalizes Medical Marijuana Unanimously<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"