Anutin on cannabis: Going backwards is not an option

After a cannabis bill aimed at moving the decriminalisation away from recreational use and defining it for medicinal purposes only was shot down this week in the House of Representatives, Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul insists that criminalising the drug again is out of the question.

Anutin is the leader of the Bhumjaithai Party who had originally pushed for the legalisation of cannabis in Thailand but later backtracked after negative stories surfaced of people being harmed by the drug, saying that the party only ever intended it to be made available for medical purposes.

In fact, the bill that was blocked in Parliament this week was not because it over-regulated cannabis, but because many felt the wording was too vague to quash recreational use strongly enough. Opposition in the Democrat Party, a party that is a political rival of Anutin’s, said loopholes and overly-relaxed rules allowed millions to register to grow, use, and sell cannabis, most likely not all for strictly medical use.

Anutin vowed to meet with Democrat Party leaders to find a compromise on their opposing views, saying that it wasn’t a personal rivalry, but a political stance disagreement. The Democrats and other political parties support reclassifying cannabis as a narcotic, but Anutin says it won’t happen.

“We already have Public Health regulations for marijuana that is [sic] still in effect, such as regulations prohibiting smoking in public under nuisance smoking ordinances. We already prepared an objection to ending the current decriminalisation period or reclassifying cannabis as a narcotic when the Draft Bill was proposed in Parliament. This is one of the reasons why the Public Health Ministry has to expedite the draft law announcement on marijuana use.”

The Public Health Minister, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister, says that there’s no need to reclassify cannabis as a narcotic until a full cannabis bill can be ratified, as temporary laws already restrict problems like use by minors and pregnant women. And, he argued, undoing the results of the decriminalisation would be disastrous, if not impossible.

“If we reclassified cannabis as a narcotic, even temporarily, bringing back possible extended jail sentences and extensive fines, then do we have to put all previously released prisoners charged in marijuana-related cases in jail again? Would we be chasing down the millions of Thais with one plant and throwing them in jail? Would we have to shut down every plantation in the country, regardless of usage or purpose, affecting over a million Thais? Would tens of thousands of new businesses need to shut, putting Thais out of work? Would these people then also be criminals, even temporarily? Going backwards is not an option.”

SOURCE: The Pattaya News