(Bloomberg) -- Thailand will seek to regulate its fast-growing cannabis industry through legislation, potentially shelving plans to reverse a landmark decriminalization policy and calming tensions within the ruling coalition.
The government will discuss plans for a draft bill to regulate the cannabis industry and wider uses of the plant, said Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of Bhumjaithai Party, the second-biggest group in Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s coalition government. Political parties may submit their drafts to parliament alongside Bhumjaithai’s version, he added.
Although details are not yet clear, the move to regulate weed could halt Srettha’s controversial push to outlaw cannabis. That would be welcome news for the thousands of growers, dispensaries and users in Thailand, who had expected the Narcotics Control Board to re-designate weed as a narcotic, effectively criminalizing it from next year.
“I thank the prime minister for considering this and deciding on legislation,” Anutin told reporters on Tuesday after a meeting with Srettha and Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin.
Advocacy group Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future thanked Bhumjaithai in a statement for “protecting the cannabis policy.”
The group had camped out near Government House for over a week to protest against re-criminalization plans, with one member being hospitalized after going on hunger strike.
Still, Minister of Public Health Somsak told local media the ministry’s draft proposal to re-classify cannabis as a narcotic has not been withdrawn and remains unchanged. Anutin is a member of the Narcotics Control Board and has threatened to vote against any re-classification of the drug.
Anutin’s vocal opposition to Srettha’s push for a u-turn on decriminalization has resulted in cannabis emerging as a political fault line within the uneasy ruling coalition stitched together following a 2023 general election. Tuesday’s apparent agreement for regulation, not repeal, follows weeks of tension in the coalition, which has seen its popularity decline as it struggled to boost growth.
The Bhumjaithai Party made cannabis decriminalization the centerpiece of its 2019 election campaign and spearheaded the push by the previous military-backed government that eventually made Thailand the first country in Asia to decriminalize weed in 2022.
But Srettha’s ruling Pheu Thai Party has promoted a hard-line stance against drugs, citing public concerns about the proliferation of weed dispensaries and recreational use by youths as reasons for the policy u-turn.
Earlier this year, the government wrote a draft bill to regulate the cannabis industry that explicitly stated recreational use of cannabis would be outlawed to address concerns from civil society. But months later, Srettha announced that he had ordered a complete u-turn to re-classify cannabis as a “category five” narcotic — which would make it a crime to grow, possess and consume — from Jan. 1 next year.
The latest shift in the government’s cannabis policy came just days after Thaksin Shinawatra, seen as the de facto leader of the ruling party, spent the long weekend with his family in Thailand’s mountainous Khao Yai area and played a round of golf with Anutin at the minister’s golf resort. Anutin denied any political discussions took place there to sway Srettha’s decision.
Anutin’s clout has risen in recent weeks following the election of a new Senate in which the majority appear to have links with his Bhumjaithai party.
When asked if there would be more uncertainty on the issue after several changes in the government’s direction on cannabis, Anutin told reporters: “This is the prime minister’s directive too.”
(Updates with quotes and details throughout.)
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