Weeding out foreigners: strains over Thailand's legalisation of marijuana

By Kanupriya Kapoor and Panarat Thepgumpanat

 

Thai activists who use marijuana therapy hold placards as they gather during a campaign for the legalisation of medical marijuana near Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Panumas Sanguanwong/Files

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is set to become the first Asian country to legalise medical marijuana, but a battle is brewing between local and foreign firms over control of a potentially lucrative market.

 

With parliament set to approve the legislation as early as next month, Thai businesses and activists have raised concerns that a raft of patent requests filed by foreign firms could allow them to dominate the market and make it harder for researchers to access marijuana extracts.

 

"Granting these patents is scary because it blocks innovation and stops other businesses and researchers from doing anything related with cannabis," said Chokwan Kitty Chopaka, an activist with Highlands Network, a cannabis legalisation advocacy group in Thailand.

 

"We were very shocked to see this because it would be like allowing them to patent water and its uses," Chokwan said, adding that applicants are seeking patents for plant-related substances, which are not allowed under Thai law.

 

Opposition to foreign firms has threatened to stall the legalisation process, with researchers and civic networks threatening to sue the government if the patents are granted, according to media.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has been urged to issue an executive order to end the impasse, but a national government spokesman said there were no plans to do so yet.

 

"We will proceed normally through the Commerce Ministry first. We must let everything proceed without harming people's rights," said Puttipong Punnakanta.

 

Thailand's move to allow the use of marijuana for medical and research purposes follows a wave of legalisation across the globe, including in Colombia, Israel, Denmark, Britain and certain U.S. states. Uruguay and Canada have gone one step further and also legalised recreational use.

 

Thailand's neighbours Malaysia and Singapore are in the early stages of debating whether to legalise medical marijuana, but it is a sensitive issue because the drug remains illegal and taboo across much of Southeast Asia.

 

The region has some of the world's harshest penalties, including lengthy prison terms for possession of drugs in Thailand, and capital punishment in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia for trafficking. In the Philippines, thousands of people have been killed since 2016 in President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-narcotics crackdown.

 

Among a handful of foreign companies that are looking to enter the Thai market are British giant GW Pharmaceuticals and Japan's Otsuka Pharmaceutical, which have jointly applied for marijuana-related patents.

 

Representatives for GW Pharma and Otsuka declined to comment on their applications.

 

"We haven't seen progress on our patent registration maybe because many people are opposed to allowing foreign drugmakers to enter the market. I feel like we are seeing a high bar on this," said one foreign company official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

 

PART OF THAI CULTURE

Thais used marijuana in traditional medicine for centuries before it was banned in 1934. Farmers were known to use it as a muscle relaxer after a day in the fields and it was reportedly used to ease womens' labour pains.

 

In fact, the word 'bong', which describes a water pipe often used to smoke weed, comes from the Thai language.

 

Experts say Thailand, already a regional hub for medical tourism, has a combination of factors working in favour of legalisation, including a tropical climate that could allow for cheaper production of marijuana than, for instance, in Canada.

 

Businesses want to use this to cash in on what Deloitte says could be a global legal medical cannabis market worth more than $50 billion by 2025.

 

For Thai Cannabis Corporation (TCC), a majority Thai-owned entity that is waiting for legalisation to obtain a license to sell cannabis-derived ingredients to manufacturers, the move would be "a return to centuries-old tradition".

 

"The attitude is that it's already a part of traditional medicine ... and we should ensure that Thais can control their own industry," said Jim Plamondon, marketing head of TCC, which is currently not in business.

 

The government earlier this year rejected calls to decriminalise recreational use of the drug.

 

Instead, the new law will reclassify marijuana as a narcotic whose extracts can be used in traditional Thai medicine, and to treat drug-resistant epilepsy and pain and nausea in cancer patients.

 

Research will be permitted into the use of marijuana to treat Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, according to Dr. Sophorn Mekthon, chairman of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation.

 

"What is most important in the whole debate is the accessibility of medical marijuana to patients," he said.

 

(Additional reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat in Bangkok and Takashi Umekawa in Tokyo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-12

The tropical climate only works against growing good quality mariuhana because the pollen from the male plants will be in the air all over the country causing the female flowers to get pollinated and make seeds which lower the quality.

 

Growing under glass is impossible in the thai heat i assume but i'm not sure.

Oh,of course,and (as a foreigner) you wouldn't want to lease and run a gold mine either..

 

Thars filthy lucre in them thar hills..

Nice to see protectionist thainess at work yet again.

6 minutes ago, fruitman said:

The tropical climate only works against growing good quality mariuhana because the pollen from the male plants will be in the air all over the country causing the female flowers to get pollinated and make seeds which lower the quality.

 

Growing under glass is impossible in the thai heat i assume but i'm not sure.

Clones. You just plant female clones.

Wow. I learned the word “bong” originated from the Thai language. People  all over the world have been speaking and using Thai language since their teen years and didn’t know it. 

There will always contradictions around legalize not in Thailand only, but all over the world. Medical marijuana have proven useful properties, but still it is not 100% investigted. Many people are afraid of possible side effects, meanwhile medical weed contains almost zero THC responsible for addiction and high effect.

43 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

Wow. I learned the word “bong” originated from the Thai language. People  all over the world have been speaking and using Thai language since their teen years and didn’t know it. 

It's actually the only Thai word in the Oxford dictionary.

'In fact, the word 'bong', which describes a water pipe often used to smoke weed, comes from the Thai language.'

 

Finally. A bona fide Thai invention.

So cannabis is illegal and taboo in most of SE Asia while alcohol is perfectly legal and accepted! OK well case in point drunk tourist making a fool of himself alcohol related, any cannabis related issues? NONE

Wow. I learned the word “bong” originated from the Thai language. People  all over the world have been speaking and using Thai language since their teen years and didn’t know it. 

And for decades we have been getting the tone wrong and Thais would have no idea what we’re saying!

21 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Clones. You just plant female clones.

That will not work either as the pollen from the males will still pollinate them. Moreover, even the best strain issued from clones will create transgenders, otherwise known as hermaphrodites, if there is the slightest change in lighting, even temperature in some cases. VEry difficult to keep females from being inseminated... (hehehe)

3 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

That will not work either as the pollen from the males will still pollinate them. Moreover, even the best strain issued from clones will create transgenders, otherwise known as hermaphrodites, if there is the slightest change in lighting, even temperature in some cases. VEry difficult to keep females from being inseminated... (hehehe)

Disagree. One isolates ones field and ensures that only females are planted. And clones are NOT that delicate, in fact, there are strains that are adapted for outdoor growing. 

 

While I personally find outdoor strains (like various strains of Humboldt Cali Weed) to be inferior to the green house product (AK, WA, OR, BC, NV) they are still quite smokeable

14 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Disagree

Hmm I disagree with your disagreement. But hey... what do I know... never touched the stuff...????

22 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Clones. You just plant female clones.

And you keep them under glass with air filtered from male pollen? There only has to be one male aound somewhere and they all get pollinated.

Get the Lumpini police in to sort out them foreigners 

30 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Disagree. One isolates ones field and ensures that only females are planted. And clones are NOT that delicate, in fact, there are strains that are adapted for outdoor growing. 

So they won't be buying and planting feminised auto-flowering hybrid seeds like everyone else?

19 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

So they won't be buying and planting feminised auto-flowering hybrid seeds like everyone else?

Clones is the way to go

29 minutes ago, fruitman said:

And you keep them under glass with air filtered from male pollen? There only has to be one male aound somewhere and they all get pollinated.

You clearly havent done it ????

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

You clearly havent done it ????

Nop i would never do such thing...