Cannabis Investment
Thailand giving away one million free cannabis plants
Thailand’s public health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, announced that following the legalisation of home production and possession of the drug, they will be giving away 1 million of the plants for free.
In 2018 Thailand followed Canada and became the first country in South-East Asia to legalise medical cannabis and has continued to push towards wider access over the past four years.
It was dropped from a list of controlled drugs in February and this allowed households to grow the plant for personal use, provided it was for personal and medical use only.
A free cannabis market for all
Charnvirakul announced that under new laws people in Thailand will be free to compete freely in Thailand’s cannabis market from 9 June. He did not elaborate much, but also mentioned the government would be handing out 1 million plants to citizens for free.
Due to travel and tourism restrictions, the country has seen a major economic hit during the pandemic, and this move hopes to generate “more than 10 billion baht per year” in revenue.
Larger cannabis-related businesses will have to register with the FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) and still maintain a less than 0.2% THC content in their products or face legal consequences. How this will be enforced has also not been fully clarified by the government.
Medical tourism - a huge economic boost
Recently, a poll by analytics firm YouGov showed that just over 73% of Thai consumers say they are aware of cannabis now being commercially available. Within the past two years nearly half have used a product, and about 62% said they are further interested in consuming cannabis products in the next 12 months.
Asia’s cannabis industry is relatively new, and the kingdom’s goal seems to be to become the market leader. The United States and other European countries are still trying to regulate the sales of cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes.
Thailand will see an influx of visitors, both for recreational tourism, but also medical tourism as well, for countries that are behind in regulation and legislation like the UK.
