Sawadee Everyone,
It looks like the Minister of Public Health had to surgically remove his foot from his mouth this week as he backtracked on submitting his proposal to Parliament.
That does force me to take a split decision on last week’s call that the Minister of Public Health did not submit the bill as a reaction to the Coldplay concert complainers.
He did rush the bill specifically trying to seem responsive to the social media uproar caused by weed smoke at a concert, as many people claimed, but as I did mention last week, you don’t just slap together a bill, and he must have realized that his bill would have gotten rejected faster than a broke guy in a gogo bar and decided to spare himself the loss of face.
In the meantime, the Future Cannabis Network has delivered their draft bill to the Minister of Public Health along with 10,000 signatures.
Their message has been very hard-hitting on the point that alcohol and other drugs are far more damaging than cannabis.
Normally, I find that a rather lazy argument because comparing two things and declaring one better or worse rarely wins the argument.
But in this case, they presented some specific challenges to the Minister of Public Health. They’re asking that he do a scientific comparative study on the negative effects of cannabis vs alcohol and then use that study to better inform drug policies across the country.
That would certainly be an interesting development if he bites at the challenge or succumbs to public pressure and is forced to conduct a study.
Like the rest of the world, he would have a problem explaining why a drug, like alcohol, that doctors, across the board, agree has no benefit on health (and a lot of negative consequences) is legal and this other drug, cannabis, which has no realistic fatal dosage and has proven medical benefits, is illegal and-or highly restricted.
But, it’s highly doubtful any study will ever be conducted by the Thai (or any other) government because they already know what it will show.
So, where does that leave us?
I find some comfort in the fact that the Minister of Public Health didn’t issue a new date by which he would have a bill ready.
That means he may be considering the input of groups like Future Cannabis Network and others who are pressing him to justify why recreational use is being prohibited at all.
Ultimately, we will end up in the same situation as last week in a few weeks or months.
Maybe that bill will be more flexible, maybe it’ll be even more strict. We don’t know.
That said, I should also mention that our friends of the cannabis community, the Bhumjaithai (BJT) party have gotten into a bit of hot water and this could be very bad for cannabis legislation going forward.
It’s still early but former secretary-general of BJT, Saksayam Chidchob, was found guilty of concealing assets and hiding ownership in a company that the government granted projects to.
It’s possible that the entire party could be dissolved, though many say this is unlikely to happen.
That would eliminate any leverage BJT has to influence a future cannabis bill.
With a dissolved party the elected MPs would be scrambling to attach themselves to another party and any chance to present a united front against a bad cannabis bill would be close to zero.
But, like almost everything concerning cannabis legislation and Thai politics, we’ll have to see what happens. I just wanted to make people aware that this is a possibility.
Stay lifted and enlightened,
Don’t forget that we’ve partnered with some dispensaries for exclusive deals available to members of this newsletter and the r/CannabisThailand sub on Reddit. Just type “Dank Deal” into the comments of any post and the AutoMod will send you the current discounts being offered.
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