Should non-medicinal weed be legal?

The issue of narcotics is not only a law enforcement and medical issue. It is also a historical, political and economic issue. A recurrent dilemma is whether personal, non-medical use of “weed” or cannabis (which is generally seen as a softer drug, when compared with harder drugs such as methamphetamine), should be legal. Thailand is still in the quest for a balanced answer, and this is shaped by political and economic ambivalence.

- Vitit Muntarbhorn

The 20th century witnessed various treaties to forbid the sale, trafficking and use of a range of drugs. There emerged the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, treaties to which Thailand is a party. They have shaped the various criminal laws on the drugs issue in Thailand, now with a new Narcotics Code effective from 2021.

Those treaties laid down the rules classifying various drugs as forbidden while regulating the flow of precursors, namely chemicals used in the manufacturing of such drugs. Weed was also prohibited under the first convention mentioned. However, later it was taken off the list of prohibited drugs which are used for medical purposes. The tone of those treaties still indicates that non-medical use, such as personal consumption, should be illegal.

One issue from that international framework is that it did not address adequately the perspective of the users or consumers from the health and human rights angle. The user might have a medical problem which needs to be treated. Rehabilitation rather than criminalisation would be the preferred approach.

Where the state itself is non-democratic or is under “rule by law” rather than “rule of law”, putting too much power (under the guise of criminal law) in the hands of the authorities is also a recipe for corruption. Besides, small consumption of weed of low potency for recreational or personal use in a private setting might not be dangerous medically nor pose a threat to public interest.