Southeast Asia has traditionally been the part of the world with the harshest cannabis laws. But over the past year, activist efforts have started to pay off, spurred by outrage over particularly egregious injustices.<\/p>\n
Some countries in the region are taking steps to open legal space for medical use. Myanmar, only tentatively emerging into democracy after a generation of military rule, has not been among them. But it may now be getting its chance.<\/p>\n
Last week saw the police raid of a 20-acre outdoor cannabis plantation near Mandalay, the historic city in central Myanmar. Authorities had apparently been alerted when photos of the grow were posted on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0by an activist group called the\u00a0Mahar Legalization Movement Myanmar<\/a>. The Mahar group (from the Burmese word for \u201cgreat\u201d) approvingly captioned the photos an \u201cindustrial hemp plantation.\u201d<\/p>\n But\u00a0Myanmar\u2019s law makes no distinction between hemp and marijuana. \u201cWe took action as soon as we saw the post on Facebook,\u201d a police representative told the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0by phone.<\/p>\n And the affair won perhaps more international coverage than authorities wanted when it proved that one of the men arrested in connection with the grow was a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n Those arrested in the April 24 raid were named as U.S. citizen John Fredric Todoroki, 63, and two Burmese nationals, U Shein Latt, 37, and Ma Shun Le Myat Noe, 23. A second American wanted in connection with the grow, Alexander Skemp Todoroki, 49, is said to still be at large. Media reports are unclear how the two Todorokis are related.<\/p>\n Myanmar\u2019s\u00a0Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control<\/a>\u00a0said that 350,000 cannabis plants, 270 kilograms (600 pounds) of harvested marijuana, and 380 kilos (840 pounds) of seed were seized in the raid, along with agricultural chemicals and implements. The plantation was apparently housed on land leased in the name of III M Global Nutracetical Company in\u00a0Myotha Industrial Park<\/a>, in the town of Ngazun, Myinchan District, Mandalay Division.<\/p>\n The three each face charges of \u201cproduction or distribution of psychotropic substances for sale,\u201d carrying a 15-year minimum sentence. But prosecutors could push for life imprisonment or even the death penalty. They additionally face charges of \u201ccultivation of narcotic or psychotropic substances,\u201d carrying a five-to-10 year term, and \u201cdrug trafficking,\u201d \u00a0carrying a 10-year minimum sentence.<\/p>\n Industrial park management said the leasee had a document from the Mandalay regional government, dated last August, giving permission to cultivate and export \u201cmedicinal hemp,\u201d according to the Times account. If so, the document is not being honored by the national authorities.<\/p>\n Daw Ni Ni Aye, director of Myanmar\u2019s Food & Drug Administration\u00a0(FDA<\/a>), who visited the plantation site after the raid, shed some light on the legal situation. She told\u00a0The Irrawaddy<\/a>\u00a0newspaper that the industrial park manager \u201csaid the plantation was set up to do research for medicinal purposes, to cure cancer. For that they will need permission. Now, we found they are producing oil from the plants.\u201d<\/p>\n However, lacking that permission, she said the matter \u201cis out of the FDA\u2019s hands; it has not become medicine yet, so the anti-narcotics team is handling it.\u201d<\/p>\n Aung Say Toe, founder of the Mahar legalization group, is urging the government to respect the defendants\u2019 right to conduct cannabis research. \u00a0\u201cThey are not cultivating secretly,\u201d he told the Times. \u201cEveryone could see it, and that\u2019s why we could take photos and video of the plantation.\u201d<\/p>\n The attorney for the arrested men, Thein Than Oo, also asserted that John Todoroki and III M Global Nutraceutical had received official permission for their grow op. \u00a0\u201cThis company rented the land and is running its laboratory officially,\u201d he told the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cTheir intention is to do research, not to sell or distribute. If their research goes well, they will work with the government.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that there is any legal ambiguity here at all in traditionally authoritarian Myanmar means this could become an important test case. The past year has seen some significant openings for cannabis in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n The most recent development came in December, when Thailand\u2019s National Legislative Assembly\u00a0voted unanimously<\/a>\u00a0to legalize medical marijuana. Strangely enough, this first country in Southeast Asia to liberalize cannabis policy has been under a military junta since a 2014 coup d\u2019etat, with powers curtailed for the Legislative Assembly.<\/p>\n This followed Malaysia\u2019s\u00a0surprise announcement<\/a>\u00a0in October that it will abolish the death penalty \u2014 a direct response to global outcry over the death sentence meted out to a provider of medicinal cannabis oil. The bad news is that seven months later, this still hasn\u2019t happened, and hardliners in the government have proposed a compromise of allowing judges discretion in whether to impose the death penalty.<\/p>\n Rights advocates in the country are not happy. \u201cThe reversal of the earlier decision is shocking, unprincipled and embarrassing,\u201d N. Surendran, advisor to Malaysian rights group\u00a0Lawyers for Liberty<\/a>, said\u00a0last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n The good news, however, is that more tolerant voices in the government have actually broached legalizing medical marijuana.<\/p>\n A negative example is posed by the Philippines, where President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s draconian \u201cdrug war\u201d has resulted in\u00a0perhaps 20,000<\/a>\u00a0extrajudicial killings by police and paramilitary forces since he took office in 2016. Amidst this bloodletting, a medical marijuana bill is actually pending in the Philippines \u2014 but Duterte, after some initial equivocation, now\u00a0says he opposes it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alas, Duterte\u2019s grim example is being emulated by other leaders across South and Southeast Asia. Sri Lanka\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0last year that it will start hanging drug convicts, with leaders explicitly hoping to \u201creplicate the success\u201d of Duterte\u2019s bloody anti-drug campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n And in 2017, Indonesia imposed a \u201cstate of emergency<\/a>\u201d in response to a supposed crisis of illegal drug use, announcing a \u201cshoot-to-kill\u201d policy modeled on Duterte\u2019s. This is bearing grim fruit.\u00a0Human Rights Watch<\/a>\u00a0last July issued a report accusing Indonesian police of a \u201ckilling spree,\u201d with many drug suspects shot while already in detention.<\/p>\n Finally, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights last June issued a\u00a0statement<\/a> expressing alarm over the police killing of drug suspects in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n Myanmar is in some ways a special case, as it is a major source country for opium, and the struggle for control of the illicit trade has long fueled multiple internal armed insurgencies in the country\u2019s northern mountains.\u00a0Myanmar\u2019s opium wars have continued despite the country\u2019s 2015 democratic opening. However, activists are using the new political space to advocate for a more tolerant policy on poppy cultivation. In 2016, the country\u2019s Drug Policy Advocacy Group (DPAG<\/a>)\u00a0issued a call<\/a> for a reform of Myanmar\u2019s drug laws as a means to de-escalate the violence in the north.<\/p>\n So after long years of rigid intolerance, progressive ideas on drug policy are, at least, entering mainstream discourse in Myanmar.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, where in the world do you see promising drug policies being enacted?<\/p>\n The post Will a High-Profile Cannabis Raid Spur Myanmar\u2019s Legalization Effort?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Southeast Asia has traditionally been the part of the world with the harshest cannabis laws. But over the past year, activist efforts have started to pay off, spurred by outrage over particularly egregious injustices. Some countries in the region are taking steps to open legal space for medical use. Myanmar,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9857,50,9858,5005,690,7296,230,9859,6004,139,9860,731,81,1356,6184,1677],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34950"}],"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\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34951,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34950\/revisions\/34951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Legal Confusion<\/h4>\n
Will\u00a0Myanmar\u00a0Blink?<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Will a High-Profile Cannabis Raid Spur Myanmar\u2019s Legalization Effort?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"