Thailand government promotes cannabis as a cash crop at Buriram festival
Thailand’s government is pushing for cannabis use in all kinds of foods and products, as long as the plant’s psychoactive component, which causes the “high,” isn’t used. Over the weekend, people flocked to the Cannabis 360 festival held by the government in the Isaan province Buriram. Those at the festival could get a cone of hemp soft serve ice cream or taste other food and beverages seasoned with cannabis leaves.
The country’s public health minister Anutin Charnvirakul, an avid cannabis and hemp supporter, promoted the event, posting a photo on his Facebook page of himself surrounded by cannabis plants.
The director of the Buriram public health and organiser of the event, Withid Sarideechaikoo, told Reuters that cannabis is “the rising star to bring our good quality of lives and money back in our purses as good (economy) as before and even better.”
The festival also promoted growing hemp, a variety of cannabis which has a low concentration of the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and a high concentration of the non-psychoactive component cannabinol, or CBD, which has been used to treat anxiety and muscle pain.
Thailand was the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise medical cannabis back in 2018. Recently, parts of the cannabis plant with low traces of THC were removed from Thailand’s narcotics list. The THC-rich buds are still classified as a Category 5 narcotic, carrying fairly hefty penalties for possession and consumption.
SOURCES: Reuters
