Thailand legalizes medical cannabis

The Thai parliament has just given final approval to an amendment to the 1979 Cannabis Act to authorize its use for medical and research purposes. This legalization also applies to kratom, another local plant cultivated for its analgesic and stimulant properties. The legalization of cannabis continues to spread across East Asia, a region known for its strict anti-drug laws. South Korea recently legalized medical cannabis and Malaysia, a country neighboring Thailand, said he was interested in it. In the Philippines, despite a fierce crackdown on drug trafficking, President announced that he would support the legalization of medical cannabis.

A hastily passed law

The initiative originally came from, from the Bureau of Narcotics and had obtained support from the military government which aimed to legalize medical cannabis before the 2019 democratic elections. The quickest way to do this without invoking Section 44 (a sort of Thai version of Section 49.3), which the dictatorial government had reportedly abused extensively, was for lawmakers themselves to introduce a bill. The proposed bill was introduced at the beginning of the month in the NLA (The National Legislative Assembly), whose members are appointed by the government, and was approved on first reading around December 13.

The amendment passed yesterday in its second and third readings by a vote of 166 to 0, with 13 abstentions. Since the usual parliamentary process takes too long, this group used special parliamentary sessions to pass the law legalizing medical cannabis before the end of the year. «This is a New Year’s gift from the NLA to the government and the Thai people,» explains Somchai Sawangkarn, who chairs the committee drafting the amendment. To take effect, it must still be published in the Royal Gazette, the government’s official journal.

The amendment authorizes the production, import, export, and use of cannabis and kratom for therapeutic and research purposes. Producers, distributors, and researchers must hold a license to handle the plant. As for patients, they must obtain a prescription from their doctor.

The Anger of Civil Society

However, the legalization is taking place amid controversy. Thailand’s Ministry of Intellectual Property is accused of corruption for reviewing ineligible patent applications submitted by foreign multinational corporations. «The ministry is intentionally neglecting its duty in order to favor transnational pharmaceutical conglomerates by agreeing to consider ineligible patent applications for cannabinoid-based medications,» explains Pratch Rujivanarom, a member of Free Trade Agreement Watch, a coalition of activists from various backgrounds, in the Nation newspaper. «The ministry may have sabotaged Thailand’s medical research and development related to cannabis,» he added.

FTA Watch is calling on the government to disclose all information regarding patents and to freeze all patent applications that violate intellectual property law. This law specifically prohibits plant patenting. »We will ask the government to revoke all applications before the law takes effect,» says Dean Panthep Puapongpan of the Rangsit Institute of Integrative Medicine. “We strongly oppose patent applications for medical cannabis because the Thai people have been using cannabis in many traditional medicines for hundreds of years. Everyone should have equal access to cannabis.».