4 Thai Police under investigation after sending woman to jail for growing 1 cannabis plant

Four Thai police officers from Sri Racha Police Station in Chon Buri have been sidelined from their present positions as senior police conduct an investigation. The 4 police arrested a woman who grew one cannabis plant at home and sent her to jail for a night.

56 year old Pornpimon Prakobpon was arrested at a rented house in the Sri Racha District of Chon Buri yesterday. She was accused of having a cannabis plant, currently included as a Category 5 illicit drug in the Thai narcotics list. The cannabis plant will be removed from the list on June 9. The woman was bought to Sri Racha Police Station, and detained for a night while waiting for her husband to bail her out.

The 55 year old husband, Choo Prakobpon, told the media that the cannabis plant belonged to him. He expected to use it as the ingredients for food and home remedies. Choo added that the police had found his cannabis tree before when they went to arrest a suspect near his house but didn’t inform him of any potential problems at the time. He thought it would be okay because the cannabis law would soon be relaxed on June 9, but his wife ended up being arrested anyway.

Choo said the officers asked him to prepare about 15,000 to 30,000 baht to bail his wife out, and he had to borrow it from his relatives. He said it was lucky that the court understood his situation and approved a temporary release without any securities or collateral.

The story of this couple went viral on Thai social media as many netizens thought it didn’t make sense to arrest locals when growing cannabis (with a THC level at or below 0.2%) was about to be legal in the next 9 days.

Yesterday the media reported that the Commander of Chon Buri Provincial Police, Auttasit Kitjaharn, had set up a committee to investigate the group of police. The official announcement said the 4 police officers would be moved to work at the Office of the Provincial Police Region 2 with desk jobs whilst the investigation continues.

The Spokesperson of the Provincial Police Region 2, Chaiyapoj Suwannarak, said the Royal Thai Police had emphasised that police needed to use their judgment and discretion carefully in cannabis cases. The spokesperson added that the 4 police officers were under investigation because residents were interested in the case and new cannabis laws, so the arrest case could affect the image of the police.

SOURCE: Dailynews | Thairath | Sanook