BANGKOK: Thailand is planning to introduce a requirement for medical certificates to be shown when buying cannabis, a senior official said on Thursday (May 22), in a move to tighten control of marijuana use, three years after it was decriminalised.
Thailand was one of the first countries in Asia to decriminalise marijuana but did so without a law to govern its sale, production or usage. That led to an instant boom, with tens of thousands of retailers popping up across the country, particularly in tourist hotspots in Bangkok and the resort island of Phuket.
The new regulation, which is expected to be announced within 40 days, will ensure cannabis is used for medical purposes and not recreationally, said Somruek Chungsaman, who heads the health ministry’s department of traditional and alternative medicine.
“Anyone who wants to buy cannabis flowers to smoke, Thai or foreign, must have a doctor’s prescription for medical use,” he told Reuters.“We don’t want people saying they came to Thailand just to smoke cannabis. That gives a negative impression.”
