Since June 9, Thais have the right to grow cannabis at home, officially for medical purposes.
The procedure for registering a plantation could not be simpler: people wishing to cultivate at home must register on PlookGanja, a government web interface also available as a mobile application available on the Android and iOs stores. If this is not possible, they can also go to the provincial administrative offices to file their application and wait to receive their notification of acceptance.
Thus, yesterday at 5 p.m. local time, more than 800,000 people registered their application for legal planting according to the count of the Thai Cannabis FDA, a division of the Ministry of Health which partly regulates the public use of cannabis.
About half of the 800,000 applications have already been accepted.
In parallel, the Thai government has committed to distributing more than 1 million Cannabis plants. Thais will thus be able to cultivate cannabis and resell it to the local medical circuit made up of pharmacies and dispensaries via the intermediary of the regulatory authority.
“This will enable the people and the government to generate more than 10 billion baht [par an, soit 300 millions €] income from cannabis and hemp. (…) During this time, people can present their cannabis and hemp related products and sell their products throughout the country. explained Anutin Charnvirakul, Thai Minister of Health.
The sale of recreational cannabis is not yet legal in Thailand, and its public consumption still punishable by imprisonment and fines, but some stores, notably in Bangkok, have already started selling cannabis “for adults”.
The rules related to recreational use should be published quickly by the Thai government, cannabis is currently neither illegal – it is no longer a narcotic – nor legal – it is not yet regulated. Only cannabis extracts (oils, concentrates, etc.) with +0.2% THC are currently only reserved for the pharmaceutical circuit.
