Thailand to back off on cannabis

First Asian nation to decriminalize sours on recreational use

- PATPICHA TANAKASEMPIPAT

People walk past a cannabis dispensary store in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok in early February.

Thailand wants to ban recreational use of cannabis by the end of this year, the nation's health minister now says, threatening to put thousands of marijuana shops and farms that have sprung up around the country since a decriminalization drive two years ago out of business.

The Southeast Asian nation will seek to get a new cannabis bill which will explicitly outlaw recreational use of cannabis - approved by lawmakers in the lower house by the end of October, before parliament goes into recess, Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew told Bloomberg in an interview in Bangkok. That will follow a review by the cabinet next month, he said.

Liberal use of cannabis became a hot-button political issue heading into last year's national elections, which took place a year after Thailand became the first nation in Asia to decriminalize cannabis. But a parallel effort to establish regulations around the marijuana industry failed, leaving a vacuum that many politicians said was fueling drug addiction.

"It's an issue of great concern to us, because the legal gap has led to free use of cannabis and there aren't enough regulations to prevent misuse," Cholnan said, defining "misuse" as anything not related to medical and health needs. "This bill will control cannabis, especially its buds, just as strictly as we would a drug."