Medical-cannabis pioneer calls for drug law changes

By The Nation

 

 

Traditional medical practitioner Decha Siriphat plans to stage a rally for 20 days to raise public awareness to support marijuana-based medicine production and to campaign for changes to the narcotics law.

 

The government recently decided to loosen controls on the uses of marijuana, allowing it to be used in medicines under strict conditions. The changes came into effect on February 19.

 

Alternative medical practitioners said the tight and complicated procedures which could, in turn, deprive patients’ rights to marijuana-based medicines believed to help cure several illnesses, including cancer.

 

For instance, those allowed to possess and produce medicines based on marijuana must be state agencies or research institutions working in the field or they must be registered as medical practitioners first.

 

Their medicinal formulas must also be registered first or follow approved formulas or pass trials before distribution, the lengthy processes that are seen as posing critical obstacles to marijuana-based medicine development, especially by traditional practitioners.

 

Decha, a long-time community rights and rice variety conservation advocate, has just been newly endorsed as a traditional medical practitioner after experimenting with marijuana-based medicines under his own formula for years. He is still waiting to see his medicine formula approved, and has decided to make a move to campaign for “freeing marijuana from obstacles to become medicines for ordinary people”.

 

He estimated that nearly 1 million Thais or so would benefit from using marijuana-based medicines to cure illnesses and the production. But the distribution of medicines under the strict narcotics law could do a little to help them.

 

If he managed to produce the medicines under the guidelines, he said he could help only around 10,000 patients a year due to strict processes while neglected almost a million others.

 

“The law needs to be amended again because it can do a little at this point. We want people to access medicines and that's the reason why we are pushing for an amendment,” said Decha.

 

He first distributed his medicines to patients for free in Phichit province. 

 

Besides the amendment, Decha hoped that in the long run people can rely more on themselves and their communities in taking care of themselves and their illnesses via community-based healthcare centres with marijuana and other herbal medicines. 

 

“It’s my dream and with that our public health would be much more progressive than it is now,” said Decha.

 

Witoon Lianchamroon, a director of BioThai, a non-profit organisation promoting community rights and biodiversity and food security, said its next challenge was to amend the law again.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30369123

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-05-9

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4 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Decha, a long-time community rights and rice variety conservation advocate, has just been newly endorsed as a traditional medical practitioner after experimenting with marijuana-based medicines under his own formula for years. 

He's a what .! rice variety conservation advocate .. has he been experimenting a bit too much with his own formula .. 

 

4 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Decha Siriphat

You can make Phat Iris Ached out of his name .. If she is he wants to give her some of his maryjane medicine .. 

governments are servants of the people so why is the government dealing drugs and i cant smoke it?

6 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

He's a what .! rice variety conservation advocate .. has he been experimenting a bit too much with his own formula .. 

 

You can make Phat Iris Ached out of his name .. If she is he wants to give her some of his maryjane medicine .. 

You dont understand the term ? Its quite simple a variety of rice limits the possibility of disease spreading through the entire crop.  it is an intelligent scientific way to manage crops. but you just saw marijuana and assumed it was all bs?

people realize or not MARIJANE  was legal for centuries, till big pharma outlawed it together with the wood industry 

57 minutes ago, unamazedloso said:

governments are servants of the people so why is the government dealing drugs and i cant smoke it?

That's because in Thailand the people are the servants of the "government". 

It's difficult to take the Thai authorities seriously. 
On one hand they want the financial benefit of manufacturing cannabis-based medicine.  On the other hand, they want to keep their repressive and backwards anti-drug laws and withhold the Thai public's access to cannabis.

Talk about severe cognitive dissonance.  

Traditional medical practitioner Decha Siriphat plans to stage a rally for 20 days to raise public awareness to support marijuana-based medicine production and to campaign for changes to the narcotics law.

The green vest protests.


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13 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

He's a what .! rice variety conservation advocate .. has he been experimenting a bit too much with his own formula .. 

 

You can make Phat Iris Ached out of his name .. If she is he wants to give her some of his maryjane medicine .. 

He should be congratulated for fighting to preserve rice varieties from monopolistic agricultural imperialists like Monsanto, and for promoting community medicine primarily based on natural, organic products - which was the norm around the world before the Big Oil gave birth to Big Pharma and ever bigger prescription bills.

 

 

Edited May 10, 20197 yr by Krataiboy

1 hour ago, connda said:

It's difficult to take the Thai authorities seriously. 
On one hand they want the financial benefit of manufacturing cannabis-based medicine.  On the other hand, they want to keep their repressive and backwards anti-drug laws and withhold the Thai public's access to cannabis.

Talk about severe cognitive dissonance.  

That's the clinical diagnosis for Thainess.

when America goes legal with weed federally then the world will change..