Author: Johnny Green

On June 9th, just a little over a week ago, Thailand embarked on a new cannabis public policy journey when it implemented its new national cannabis laws, and with it, launched a nationwide program in which households can sign up to cultivate low-THC cannabis.

The new cultivation program is the first of its kind on the entire planet, and it has proven to be so popular that on the first day that people could sign up for the cultivation program the government app used to sign households up crashed. Apparently, the app received over 9 million applications on just the first day alone.

As of the morning of June 12th, just three days after the launch of Thailand’s cultivation program, over 650,000 households had already signed up and received notifications to cultivate cannabis. It’s a truly historic time in Thailand, and I reached out to Mr. Wisan Potprasat, President of the River Khwae Herbal Therapeutic Center, for his take on what is going on in Thailand.

Mr. Potprasat is the President of the River Khwae Herbal Therapeutic Center (RHTC), President of Community Enterprise Network of Western Herbal Alliances, and the CEO Cannabis Medical Industrial Estate Association of Thailand. Below is what he had to say:

For more than 88 years, the cultivation and consumption of cannabis in Thailand has been banned by law, although cannabis has played a very important role in traditional Thai medicine in the past.

Many specific cannabis strains seemed to have been lost and it was not possible to carry out research and studies on cannabis breeding over this long period of time.

In recent years, the Thai government has understood that cannabis does more good than harm and so they began to gradually adapt the laws. This opened the way for domestic farmers to create a new income opportunity. In addition, cannabis can be used again in traditional Thai medicine and as a basis for new medicines for the population. On July 9th, a new law came into force that allows the possession, cultivation and consumption of cannabis under certain conditions (THC content must be below 0,2%). Thailand is the first country in South-East Asia that does such a big step in its laws. This important milestone finally decriminalizes the handling of cannabis for private individuals. This will help establish a healthy relationship with the plant that has been cultivated for generations.

As soon as Thailand changed the law in 2018 and allowed to use cannabis for medical purposes, we at RHTC started rediscovering the ancient Thai cannabis strains and bringing them back to Thailand. Luckily, many varieties were rediscovered in neighboring countries, where they “survived” in private gardens for several decades. From the beginning it was important to us to build up a network with local farmers in order to rebuild the Thai cannabis industry together with them. We impart knowledge about the cultivation of cannabis and use modern technology to ensure sustainable cultivation with zero waste and pollution. The perfect climatic conditions in Thailand together with the irrepressible diligence and drive of our young growers ensure that we have now become the largest cannabis producer in Asia. The gradual opening up of laws by the Thai government has enabled us to re-cultivate the ancient cannabis strains of Thailand and it makes as very proud that in the meantime we can offer the best quality in the world.

In the future, of course, further steps and changes in the law will be necessary to further simplify the cultivation, processing and, in particular, trading of cannabis and its products. There are already wider draft laws on cannabis control being discussed in the Thai parliament. However, thanks to the Thai government’s constant and determined legal steps in the right direction, we have already achieved a major lead compared to the rest of the world.

Thailand has officially made a historic cannabis policy shift. As of today, every household in the entire country can sign up to legally cultivate low-THC cannabis plants. It’s the first time in the history of the world that such a public policy was implemented at a national level.

To make the public policy shift even more historic, Thailand isn’t just merely allowing people to cultivate low-THC cannabis. Rather, Thailand’s government is fully embracing the cannabis plant and the industry it creates.

Thailand’s Public Health Minister previously indicated that there will be no plant limit for the government’s cultivation program, so households can cultivate as much as they want to. As part of the rollout of the new law, Thailand is giving away over 1 million cannabis seeds directly to households that sign up to cultivate cannabis.

The government is even giving out low-interest loans to help aspiring cultivators get their operations started. Thailand also launched an app to help streamline the process of people signing up their households to cultivate cannabis. An FAQ public service announcement effort was launched to help people understand the law and cultivation program.

The Health Ministry has largely led the charge for cannabis reform in Thailand, however, it’s not the only government entity embracing the cannabis plant. As we previously reported, a broad spectrum of government agencies in Thailand previously entered into an agreement to do their part to push Thailand’s emerging cannabis industry forward.

Thailand is also working to help right the wrongs of prohibition’s past by releasing thousands of people serving time for cannabis offenses. Courts will also halt current prosecutions that fit within the parameters of the government’s new policy. Every affected defendant/prisoner, regardless of when the offense took place, will have their offenses removed from their records.

To really hammer home the point of how big of a shift Thailand’s new law is from a criminal justice standpoint, not only were charges dropped against a woman that was cultivating cannabis, the officers were punished for arresting her in the first place. All of it took place in the weeks leading up to the new law taking effect – not after the law took effect.

Thailand’s new cannabis policy model still has its limitations, not the least of which is the limit on THC for all cannabis plants and products. It’s tough to fully categorize Thailand as a legal country alongside Uruguay, Canada, and Malta. However, Thailand’s policy is definitely better than every other country that is still clinging to prohibition, especially in the region where Thailand is located.

Thailand is now in a category all of its own when it comes to cannabis policy. When the new policy inevitably succeeds and doomsday scenarios prove to be nothing more than fearmongering, hopefully it results in other countries adopting some or all of Thailand’s policies, and even better, improving upon them.

In just a matter of days, Thailand will implement a very unique and bold approach to cannabis policy. On June 9th a new law goes into effect that will, among other things, legalize home cultivation for every household in the nation.

Thailand will launch a registration program in which households can sign up to cultivate low-THC cannabis and make use of harvests in various ways, including eventually selling it to the government.

To assist in helping households participate, the government is offering extremely low-interest loans to aspiring cultivators and distributing over one million cannabis seeds to households across the country.

Additionally, as announced this week, Thailand will also be releasing thousands of people currently serving time for cannabis offenses. Per Bangkok Post:

Ongoing trials and detention in connection with cannabis-related offences will be cancelled once revised restrictions take effect on Thursday, according to the Office of the Judiciary.

The production, import, export, distribution, consumption and possession of cannabis — except for its psychoactive substances — will be formally legalised on June 9 when a Ministry of Public Health announcement published in the Royal Gazette on Feb 9 takes effect, said Sorawit Limparangsri, a spokesman for the Office.

Cannabis-related offences that resulted in court cases and detention prior to June 9 will be cancelled, with any bond payments to be returned. People incarcerated in related trials serving jail time due to an inability to pay fines will also be released, according to the agency.

In addition to people being freed from prison and current prosecutions being abandoned, people previously convicted of some cannabis offenses will have those prosecutions removed from their records.

People awaiting trial will still have to show up to court as a procedural requirement, however, it’s only so that a judicial review can be performed to ensure that the case is eligible for dismissal.

It’s worth noting that not every case involving cannabis will be eligible for release, dismissal, and/or expungement. Some cases that involve cannabis also involve other offenses, so obviously in those instances, the case will remain in the criminal justice system. The same is true for cannabis cases that are beyond the parameters permitted by the new cannabis law.

Still, it’s estimated that over 4,000 cannabis prisoners will be released next week in Thailand, and that doesn’t seem to include pending cases, expungements for people that already served their sentences, and the prevention of future cases. It’s a significant move by Thailand, and hopefully other countries will work to do the same.