Prescription and quantity cap to weed out herb smuggling
THE country aims to clamp down on easy access to cannabis by mandating medical prescriptions amid rising instances of tourists attempting to smuggle out large quantities of weed.
Dispensaries will be allowed to sell cannabis only to those with licenses or with prescriptions from medical professionals, including traditional medicine practitioners, when proposed changes to existing rules take effect in about 40 days.
The amount sold will also be limited to 30 days of use, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
The new rules, which will be binding on locals and foreigners alike, come after Thai authorities intercepted 73kg of cannabis earlier this week at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport.
Weed smuggled out of Thailand has reached the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and many other destinations, Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said.
Thailand will now make it harder to access cannabis except for medical reasons, he added.
Thailand was the first country in Asia to decriminalise cannabis in 2022, but has so far struggled to regulate and contain its free use.
A legal vacuum, without a cannabis law in place, has allowed more than 10,700 cannabis dispensaries to open nationwide, with many in popular tourist areas and business districts in Bangkok and beyond.
The South-East Asian country has also made several policy u-turns after recreational smoking became a hot-button issue due to wider societal concerns over addiction.
Somsak's ruling Pheu Thai Party had vowed to re-list marijuana as a narcotic to restrict its use to just medical purposes, but opposition from Bhumjaithai Party, the second-biggest group in the ruling coalition, has forced Pheu Thai to walk back on its pledge and keep the plant legal.
While cannabis can be consumed within Thailand, it has been smuggled out of the country in tourist luggages or by mail.
Since British and Thai authorities joined forces last year, over 50 British nationals have been arrested in Thailand for attempted cannabis smuggling. Thai airport authorities have also intercepted over 800 cannabis smugglers and seized over nine tonnes of cannabis, the British government said in a statement.
The new rules are likely to be temporary as Thailand is still working on a full-fledged cannabis bill to regulate the wider uses, sales, exports and production of the plant.
The draft Bill was unveiled last September but hasn't been approved by the Cabinet or reached parliament for deliberation. — Bloomberg
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
38 minutes ago
- The Star
Vietnam sends trade demand reply as US turns up China heat
HANOI: Vietnam said it is responding to US demands with "goodwill' and has sent a written reply to US trade requests after the Trump administration vowed to keep pressuring the South-East Asian nation to reduce its role in China supply chains. At talks in Paris, the two sides agreed on the need to speed up progress ahead of the third round of official negotiations set to take place next week, according to a post on the Vietnam trade ministry's website. Vietnam has engaged in weeks of intense diplomacy with the US - the largest export market of the trade-reliant country - as it seeks to avert a threatened 46% tariff, which was later wound back to 10% for 90 days to allow time for talks. Hanoi's relationship with northern neighbour China, its largest bilateral trade partner, has increasingly drawn US scrutiny. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Washington's tough stance will remain as long as Vietnam keeps re-exporting a significant amount of Chinese products to the US. This is an "unrealistic expectation' for any export-oriented country, including Vietnam, said Tyler Manh Dung Nguyen, chief market strategist at Ho Chi Minh City Securities JSC. "Cutting ties entirely with Chinese suppliers would not only undermine Vietnam's export capacity to the rest of the world, but is also fundamentally incompatible with the country's foreign policy,' he added. The punitively high levy the US is threatening to impose reflects its displeasure with Vietnam's trade surplus, the third-largest globally behind China and Mexico. Vietnam has repeatedly vowed to purchase more American goods, while offering to remove all tariffs on US imports. Vietnam cited progress after the second round of trade talks last month but said that outstanding issues remain. It's taken steps to address some US concerns: stepping up a crackdown on trade fraud and promising to buy US$2 billion worth of US agricultural products. But the longstanding Trump administration desire to reduce Vietnam's Chinese imports remains. "If the US is asking Vietnam to not allow China re-routing goods through Vietnam, then that is possible,' said Trinh Nguyen, senior economist for emerging Asia at Natixis. "If it is to shut China out of Vietnam's supply chain and economy, then it will be very difficult.' While the components that Vietnam needs for its top exports, such as phones and textiles, are dependent on China, that doesn't mean these are being produced by Chinese firms in Vietnam, she said. Many factories producing these parts are owned by South Korean and Taiwanese firms, for example. The high tariff threatens to disrupt supply chains for US brands, including Apple Inc. and Nike Inc., which have significant numbers of suppliers in the country. These manufacturers often import materials and parts from China and conduct the final assembly in Vietnam. The government may not even have the ability to force companies to remove Chinese components from their products. "These are ultimately business decisions made by private enterprises,' Pham Luu Hung, chief economist at SSI Securities, wrote in a June 4 research note. Vietnam has sought to diversify trade partners and upgraded ties with a number of nations in recent months, as well as welcomed a revolving door of international leaders to sign deals and cooperation agreements, all in a bid to reduce exposure to any single market. Vietnam, nonetheless, remains dependent on the two economic superpowers. "Vietnam will need to figure out how to appease the US while stabilizing its relationship with China,' Natixis's Trinh Nguyen said. -Bloomberg
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
New Zealand parliament gives record bans to Maori MPs over haka
WELLINGTON: New Zealand's parliament on Thursday handed record-long suspensions to three Indigenous Maori lawmakers who last year staged a protest haka on the debating floor. Maori Party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were banished from parliament for 21 days, the longest-ever suspension. Fellow Maori Party lawmaker Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, New Zealand's youngest current MP, was suspended for seven days. The bans stem from a haka performed during voting in November on the contentious Treaty Principles Bill, which sought to redefine the principles of a key pact between Maori and the government. Waititi held up a noose as he rose to speak in defiance of the ban on Thursday. 'In my maiden speech, I talked about one of our (ancestors) who was hung in the gallows of Mt Eden Prison, wrongfully accused,' Waititi said. 'The silencing of us today is a reminder of the silencing of our ancestors of the past, and it continues to happen. 'Now you've traded the noose for legislation. Well, we will not be silenced.' Although performed on many different occasions, haka are often used as a kind of ceremonial war dance or challenge to authority. New Zealand's foreign affairs minister Winston Peters earlier mocked Waititi for his traditional full-face Maori tattoo. 'The Maori Party are a bunch of extremists, and middle New Zealand and the Maori world has had enough of them,' said Peters, who is also Maori. 'The one that's shouting down there, with the scribbles on his face... can't keep quiet for five seconds.' Maipi-Clarke, 22, sparked the affair as parliament considered the highly contentious Treaty Principles Bill in November last year. 'We get punished' In footage widely shared around the world, she rose to her feet, ripped up the bill and started belting out the strains of a protest haka. She was joined by Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer, who strode on to the chamber floor chanting the Ka Mate haka famously performed by the country's All Blacks rugby team. Ngarewa-Packer was also accused of pointing her fingers in the shape of a gun at the leader of the right-wing ACT Party, David Seymour, who had proposed the bill. The trio were hauled before parliament's powerful Privileges Committee, but refused to take part in the hearing. Supported by New Zealand's three governing coalition parties, the bans were voted on and accepted Thursday. Maipi-Clarke said Maori would not be silenced. 'A member can swear at another member, a member of Cabinet can lay their hands on a staff member, a member can drive up the steps of Parliament, a member can swear in Parliament, and yet they weren't given five minutes of suspension,' she said. 'Yet when we stand up for the country's foundational document, we get punished with the most severe consequences.' The Treaty Principles Bill sought to reinterpret New Zealand's founding document, signed between Maori chiefs and British representatives in 1840. Many critics saw the bill as an attempt to wind back the special rights given to the country's 900,000-strong Maori population. Parliament resoundingly voted down the bill in April.
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
New Zealand parliament confirms unprecedented lengthy suspension of Indigenous lawmakers
FILE PHOTO: Police stand guard as protesters gather on the grounds of New Zealand Parliament, as they demonstrate against what they consider as government encroachment on freedoms, in Wellington, New Zealand, August 23, 2022. REUTERS/Lucy Craymer/File Photo WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand's parliament agreed on historically lengthy suspensions for three Indigenous lawmakers who last year performed a haka, a traditional Maori dance, disrupting the reading of a controversial bill. A parliamentary privileges committee in May recommended the suspension of the three Te Pati Maori parliamentarians for acting in "a manner that could have the effect of intimidating a member of the house." The three performed the hakalast November ahead of a vote on a controversial bill that would have reinterpreted a 185-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Maori that still guides the country's policy and legislation. The government voted through the suspensions, which will see Te Pati Maori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi stood down from parliament for 21 days, and representative Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke for seven days. While the members are suspended, they will not be paid or be able to vote on legislation. Suspending lawmakers is rare in New Zealand's parliament with only three members suspended in the past 10 years, according to New Zealand parliamentary services. Before Thursday, the longest suspension was for three days, according to New Zealand representatives who spoke earlier in the day. Maipi-Clarke told parliament ahead of the vote that the suspension was an effort to stop Maori from making themselves heard in parliament. 'Are our voices too loud for this house? Is that the reason why we are being silenced? Are our voices shaking the core foundation of this house? The house we had no voice in building… We will never be silenced and we will never be lost,' she said. Judith Collins, who heads the privileges committee and serves as attorney-general, had previously told parliament that the haka forced the speaker to suspend proceedings for 30 minutes and that no permission had been sought to perform it. "It's not about the haka ... it is about following the rules of parliament that we are all obliged to follow and that we all pledged to follow," Collins said. The opposition Labour party called for a compromise and proposed censure instead of suspension. Labour considers the suspension to be 'inconsistent with the fundamental nature of this democracy,' Labour parliamentarian Duncan Webb said on Thursday. "This decision is wildly out of step with any other decision of the privileges committee," said Webb. The haka was traditionally a way for Maori to welcome visiting tribes or to invigorate warriors ahead of battle. It is now performed at important events as well as ahead of matches by New Zealand's rugby teams. (Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
