Growing ganja permission: a real gate-way for Thailand’s promising industrial crop?

Abstract

The current revision to Thailand’s Narcotics Act (B.E. 2563) permits Thai corporations to produce cannabis (ganja) for therapeutic purposes, as well as conduct beneficial research and development in science and agriculture. While ganja possession, distribution, and use are still illegal in Thailand, the law removes certain elements of Cannabis sativa (including hemp) from the narcotic lists as of December 2020 and Thailand's narcotics board plans to remove them totally from the lists before the last quarter of 2022. The Thai Food and Drug Administration (Thai FDA) board maintains the exclusive licensing authority to assess applications and provide authorization due to the complexity of the registration process. In this view, we analyzed the guidelines for obtaining cannabis production license, and it was apparent that the announced law was in-line with regulations set-out by many countries in terms of security and prevention of misuse. The other criteria however fall merely onto the government gains, rather than public interests. To avoid the claimed state monopoly, several types of licensing should be issued in the future, depending on the genuine purpose of the farmers. The complete regulation process and conditions for obtaining a ganja growing license in Thailand are highlighted and discussed in this review.