Bhumjaithai party rebuffs Democrats’ call for reclassification of cannabis as a Cat 5 narcotic

[snoop1130]

Photo from www.bhumjaithai.com

 

The Bhumjaithai party has rejected a call by some Democrat MPs for a review of the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522 (1979 AD), to reclassify cannabis as Category 5 narcotic, after it was removed from Category 5 on June 9th, 2022.

 

The party’s spokesman, Paradorn Prissanananthakul, told a news conference today (Wednesday) that the majority of MPs, including the Democrats, voted in favour of removing cannabis from Category 5 and it has been decriminalised in Thailand since June 9th.

 

He also explained that the draft Cannabis-Hemp Bill, which is pending its second reading in the House, is designed to regulate the liberalisation of cannabis.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/bhumjaithai-party-rebuffs-democrats-call-for-reclassification-of-cannabis-as-a-cat-5-narcotic/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-09-14

 

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[jonclark]

The democrats clearly are a bunch of utter morons. They vote in favour of one piece of legislation....and then a few months later go against their own votes. Either morons or incompetent....or most likely both.

[tomacht8]

Not exactly smart from the Democrats. The image of a modern, tolerant and progressive party does not come to the fore. So the party appears unattractive for many Thai people.

[Colabamumbai]

Their smoking too much. 

[hotchilli]

8 hours ago, tomacht8 said:

Not exactly smart from the Democrats. The image of a modern, tolerant and progressive party does not come to the fore. So the party appears unattractive for many Thai people.

Opposition for the sake of opposition... nothing new here.

[Dogmatix]

13 hours ago, jonclark said:

The democrats clearly are a bunch of utter morons. They vote in favour of one piece of legislation....and then a few months later go against their own votes. Either morons or incompetent....or most likely both.

Exactly. They are a pretty moronic bunch now.  They voted for the legalization and now want to jump  on the backlash bandwaggon in the hope it will get them votes in the next election and/or help do a deal with Thaksin. 

 

Time was that I was a  supporter of the Democrats when they had Chuan as leader and were against the Suchinda military government which they took over from. Again with Abhisit and Korn they had something going for them, even though the reds didn't appreciate them. Now I hope they will be further wiped out in the election which is a good chance without their former great white hope, the (alleged) rapist Prinn as deputy leader.

[Dogmatix]

More ominous but not mentioned in this article is the fact that Parliament didn't pass the second reading of the Bhumjaithai sponsored Cannabis and Hemp Bill. Instead they voted with a narrow margin to withdraw it temporarily in order to toughen it up before reconvening the second reading. The objections those that voted against want to be addressed appeared to be mainly that the bill didn't do enough to protect young people from getting hold of cannabis and that it sanctioned recreational use (presumably be default). Bhumjaithai insisted that the draft was already complete and that holding up the process would make it unlikely to pass the third reading before parliament is dissolved which must be done by March.  Anyway after getting an extremely flimsy bill past the first reading with ease, the growing backlash forced BJP to agree to a number of concessions toughen up the bill for the second reading but it wasn't enough.

 

If it doesn't get passed in this parliament, the current free for all will probably continue for another year or more but the next government will be able to scrap the bill and draft a new one from scratch. If Thaksin has anything to do with the next government, the chance of tightening things up to make recreational use illegal will be much higher.

[Dogmatix]

Fortunately amending the list of prohibited narcotics is not up to parliament. The category lists are annexes to the Narcotics Prevention Act which are in the power of the minister of public health to amend with a simple royal decree with the approval of the narcotics committee which is, of course, appointed by the minister. Anutin just had to publish a one pager in the Royal Gazette to legalize cannabsi. 

 

Need to watch carefully who gets the public health portfolio in the next govenment.  If BJT is in the government, Anutin will push forcefully to get it himself or for one of him boys.  

Edited September 15, 2022 by Dogmatix

[bamnutsak]

This appears to be off the table until the next session begining 1 Nov - Mar 23.

 

6 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

If it doesn't get passed in this parliament, the current free for all will probably continue for another year

This one.

 

 

[JCauto]

What happens when your bright and shiny pro-democracy party gets co-opted by the Military and loses their principles in favour of straight lust for power? They go authoritarian as that's the only path left for them to get their snouts back in the trough. Remember why Abhisit is no longer the leader - his statement that he wouldn't support Prayuth for PM led to his ouster.

[webfact]

Thailand’s Cannabis-Hemp Bill withdrawn from House agenda
 

 

The Bhumjaithai party’s flagship piece of legislation, the draft Cannabis-Hemp Bill, which has already passed its first reading in the House of Representatives, was dealt a major setback when the House voted yesterday (Wednesday), by 198:136 and 12 abstentions, for the review of the Bill to be withdrawn from the House meeting agenda.

 

The Bill was supposed to be deliberated by the House yesterday in its second reading, but Democrat and opposition MPs from the Pheu Thai and Move Forward parties voiced opposition to the Bill, which they claim has been extensively altered during the scrutiny process, after the first-reading of the original version.

 

During the debate yesterday, Democrat MP Satit Wongnongtaey sought consultation from fellow MPs before further deliberation of the Bill, pointing out that the original version had 45 sections, but the amended version has 69.

 

He noted that almost every section of the original Bill has been amended and asked the House if the Bill could be withdrawn from the meeting agenda for another review.

He also said that, since the Bill was initiated by the Bhumjaithai party, it is possible that it would not be approved by the Council of State, government’s legal arm, and relevant state agencies in its current form.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailands-cannabis-hemp-bill-withdrawn-from-house-agenda/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-09-15

 

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[MrMuddle]

Dinosaurs plain and simple, and they'll end up the same way!

[DJ54]

Geez…  what happens to the pardoned from the clink… they get a letter oh y’all gotta come back. ..

[brucegoniners]

These guys don't know what they're doing.

[Golden Triangle]

48 minutes ago, brucegoniners said:

These guys don't know what they're doing.

They never have ????????????

[Peabody]

So it basically remains not illegal then? Any actual restrictions on extracts, %, or just the original not pregant />20y.o/can't consume at schools, temples, etc.?

 

[Gluuay yai]

9 hours ago, Peabody said:

So it basically remains not illegal then? Any actual restrictions on extracts, %, or just the original not pregant />20y.o/can't consume at schools, temples, etc.?

 

They can change whatever they want at this point the genie is out of the bottle. All those fb, line, whatsapp etc 420 shops won't be putting themselves out of business. 

  Be smart buy online, smoke at home nothing will happen.

[hotchilli]

Complete and utter fiasco from the get-go.

Anutin pushed this through as a distraction from Covid and trying to win popularity votes.

[connda]

On 9/14/2022 at 7:28 PM, snoop1130 said:

The Bhumjaithai party has rejected a call by some Democrat MPs for a review of the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522 (1979 AD), to reclassify cannabis as Category 5 narcotic, after it was removed from Category 5 on June 9th, 2022.

Honestly.  The Thai masses aren't staggering around in a cannibis induced stupor.  The effect of this legislation is moderate.  People who have smoked will smoke (or people like me who used to, simply have gotten older and prefer a good beer over a joint).  People who don't smoke won't.

The benefits outweigh the Bhumjaithai 'democratic' parties perception that Thailand will descend into Reefer Madness.  It hasn't yet.

They should concentrate on the Methamphetamine problem instead.
Thailand is being flooded with low cost meth and little is being done. According to my wife, a pill of meth cost about 200 THB years ago but the price is about 10 THB per pill now.  It's a major problem in villages where nihalistic Thai youth don't see any future other than a meth-infused existence.  It's amazing how many people in our village only have been jail on meth charges.  Yet?  Bhumjaithai wants to go after cannabis that isn't a problem at all.  It tell me that Bhumjaithai party members embrace Machiavellian control of the population. Not a good look for "democrats" who are suppose to embrace liberalism.

[bobbin]

19 hours ago, connda said:

Honestly.  The Thai masses aren't staggering around in a cannibis induced stupor.  The effect of this legislation is moderate.  People who have smoked will smoke (or people like me who used to, simply have gotten older and prefer a good beer over a joint).  People who don't smoke won't.

The benefits outweigh the Bhumjaithai 'democratic' parties perception that Thailand will descend into Reefer Madness.  It hasn't yet.

They should concentrate on the Methamphetamine problem instead.
Thailand is being flooded with low cost meth and little is being done. According to my wife, a pill of meth cost about 200 THB years ago but the price is about 10 THB per pill now.  It's a major problem in villages where nihalistic Thai youth don't see any future other than a meth-infused existence.  It's amazing how many people in our village only have been jail on meth charges.  Yet?  Bhumjaithai wants to go after cannabis that isn't a problem at all.  It tell me that Bhumjaithai party members embrace Machiavellian control of the population. Not a good look for "democrats" who are suppose to embrace liberalism.

"The Bhumjaithai party’s flagship piece of legislation"..

 

I think you have gotten confused over who's who..