{"id":3106,"date":"2020-08-11T08:55:22","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T01:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/?p=3106"},"modified":"2020-08-11T08:55:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T01:55:25","slug":"thailand-touted-as-medical-marijuana-tourist-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/thailand-touted-as-medical-marijuana-tourist-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand touted as medical marijuana tourist destination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Source Bangkok Post<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thailand\u2019s ailing economy, particularly its tourism and agriculture sectors, is poised to get a boost from new rules that ease the private cultivation and sale of medical marijuana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Cabinet&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangkokpost.com\/thailand\/general\/1962627\/cabinet-approves-broadening-law-on-growing-medical-cannabis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">amended the Narcotics Act on Aug 4<\/a>, pending Parliament\u2019s approval, to allow private medical operators &#8212; a category including some traditional medicine practitioners and farmers &#8212; to grow and trade the crop including for both export and import. The move expands a cornerstone policy of Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who bet that the controlled legalisation of marijuana would boost the wellness, travel and agriculture sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest plan will lift limits imposed when the country in 2018 became the first in Southeast Asia to legalise medicinal use of the herb. It also follows the opening in January of a medical-marijuana clinic in the Health Ministry facilities that offer free medicine to its patients. This does not include the 147 authorised clinics in the country that are currently able to prescribe it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThailand is already a tourist destination for many foreigners, and marijuana will be another attraction for the country and for medical tourists,\u201d Marut Jirasrattasiri, director-general of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, said in an interview. Private medical practitioners with licences will gain the right to \u201cgrow, produce and export marijuana,\u201d he said, adding that Thai farmers will gain \u201cmore options for income.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Priority will be given to Thai investors, Mr Marut said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangkokpost.com\/thailand\/general\/1962667\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Green light to grow marijuana<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangkokpost.com\/thailand\/general\/1962627\/cabinet-approves-broadening-law-on-growing-medical-cannabis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cabinet approves broadening law on growing medical cannabis<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bangkokpost.com\/learning\/advanced\/1546950\/medical-marijuana-trials-to-start-soon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Medical marijuana trials to start soon<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe want to use Thai money for now, especially collaboration between the government and communities to enhance knowledge, research and production,\u201d Mr Marut said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want foreigners to come in and invest, then reap all the benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agriculture and tourism sectors are crucial to the local economy. About a third of Thais make their living from rice alone, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association. Meanwhile, the wellness tourism sector generated domestic expenditures of 375 billion baht in 2017, more than the combined amounts in Indonesia and Malaysia, according a report by the Global Wellness Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thailand\u2019s economy is likely to contract 8.5% in 2020 amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the biggest decline projected in Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis will allow more patients to have access to medical marijuana for their ailments and to increase awareness of medical marijuana in Thailand,\u201d Traisuree Taisaranakul, a government spokeswoman, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marijuana cultivation and dispensing is currently done solely by government agencies or closely regulated organisations. The plant remains a category-five drug, meaning recreational use is forbidden. Illegal possession could trigger a 10-year prison sentence and \u201ctrafficking\u201d is a crime punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the next stages, both Thais and foreigners will have the opportunity to be treated with medical marijuana, but only after the Covid-19 pandemic has passed and inter-travel restrictions lifted,\u201d Mr Marut said. \u201cMarijuana has always been Thailand\u2019s crop, and all the foreign countries love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The majority of Thailand\u2019s 23 exchange-traded health-care operators, led by Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Plc Bumrungrad Hospital Plc and Samitivej Plc derive a significant portion of their revenue from foreign patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Source Bankok Post <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source Bangkok Post Thailand\u2019s ailing economy, particularly its tourism and agriculture sectors, is poised to get a boost from new rules that ease the private cultivation and sale of medical marijuana. The Cabinet&nbsp;amended the Narcotics Act on Aug 4, pending Parliament\u2019s approval, to allow private medical operators &#8212; a category including some traditional medicine practitioners [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3107,"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions\/3107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khabangkok.com\/en\/kha-bangkok-co-ltd\/kha-bangkok-healthcare-thailand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}