Thailand wants to ban the recreational use of cannabis by the end of this year, the nation’s health minister said, threatening to put thousands of marijuana shops and farms that have sprung up around the country since a decriminalization drive two years ago out of business.
The Southeast Asian nation will seek to get a new cannabis bill — which will explicitly outlaw recreational use of cannabis — approved by lawmakers in the lower house by the end of October, before parliament goes into recess, Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew said at an interview in Bangkok. That will follow a review by the cabinet next month, he said.
Liberal use of cannabis became a hot-button political issue heading into last year’s national elections, which took place a year after Thailand became the first nation in Asia to decriminalize cannabis. But a parallel effort to establish regulations around the marijuana industry failed, leaving a vacuum that many politicians said was fueling drug addiction.