Thai government plans to ban recreational cannabis use

Bangkok - The Thai government will urgently move a Bill to ban the recreational use of cannabis, the Health Minister said on Feb 6, after the kingdom decriminalised the drug in 2022.

Cannabis was

taken off the list of banned narcotics in June 2022

under the previous government, which included the pro-legalisation Bhumjaithai Party.

The move prompted hundreds of cannabis dispensaries to sprout around the country, particularly in Bangkok, s

parking concern from critics who urged the need for tighter legislation.

On Feb 6, Public Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew said the new Bill, which bans the recreational use of cannabis, will be proposed at the Cabinet meeting next week.

“The new Bill will be amended from the existing one to only allow the use of cannabis for health and medicinal purposes,” he told reporters. “The use for fun is considered wrong.”

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who

took office in August 2023,

has frequently voiced his opposition to the recreational use of the drug and said it should be allowed only for medicinal use.

There was fresh pressure from the public earlier in February after attendees of British rock band Coldplay’s shows in Bangkok complained on social media, saying “the entire concert smelled like marijuana”. AFP