Pot Politics Emerge as Key Issue in Thai Election

[webfact]

FILE - Jars containing marijuana are seen at Royal Queen Seeds, a cannabis shop in Bangkok, Nov. 17, 2022. 

 

by Vijitra Duangdee

 

BANGKOK — Thailand’s political party known for getting cannabis partially legalized in the kingdom, the Bhumjaithai Party, has accused rivals of playing politics with its flagship policy ahead of a May 14 election, warning that marijuana reform is non-negotiable if it is to join any government coalition.

 

In June of 2022, Thailand decriminalized cannabis to be cultivated and sold by licensed businesses for medicinal use only.

 

But a detailed cannabis act failed to pass parliament before it was dissolved in March to make time for campaigning for the upcoming election.

 

In the legal vacuum, recreational smoking has bloomed, causing consternation among critics who say the law is too much, too fast.

 

Both the Pheu Thai and Move Forward parties, the main pro-democracy groups expected to win the majority of seats, say the liberalization of weed has been chaotic, has encouraged the smoking of marijuana and has failed to boost poor farmers as promised, because of high investment costs.

 

“We don’t want any more weed. We’re done with it,” Pheu Thai Secretary-General Prasert Chanruangthong told a campaign event last week.

 

Full story: https://www.voanews.com/a/pot-politics-emerge-as-key-issue-in-thai-election-/7068805.html

 

-- © Copyright VOA NEWS 2023-04-28

 

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[Pouatchee]

Much ado about nothing, and now if the party poopers get their way, easy going potheads are going to start filling the jail cells once again. Moreover, the government now has a list of people who legally registered to grow at home and sell in shops to chase down and send to the gallows. Life sucks sometimes.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Pouatchee

[Jingthing]

14 minutes ago, Pouatchee said:

Much ado about nothing, and now if the party poopers get their way, easy going potheads are going to start filling the jail cells once again. Moreover, the government now has a list of people who legally registered to grow at home and sell in shops to chase down and send to the gallows. Life sucks sometimes.

Normally it would hard to imagine how they can put the weed genie back in the bottle now. 

But I guess it's a threat.

I'm hoping for either a nothing burger or some BS more formal "regulations" that don't change the status quo very much, but they can say they did something,

[billd766]

54 minutes ago, Pouatchee said:

Much ado about nothing, and now if the party poopers get their way, easy going potheads are going to start filling the jail cells once again. Moreover, the government now has a list of people who legally registered to grow at home and sell in shops to chase down and send to the gallows. Life sucks sometimes.

So blame Anutin and the BJP, who put together a badly worded and very badly set up change in the law, which after 10 months they still cannot get sorted and made legal.

 

The only way that they can sort it out is to become the majority party in the next government with Anutin as PM. Somehow I cannot see that happening. It will be a nasty problem for the next government to sort out.

[d4dang]

I wonder how many candidates from the various parties have directly or have relatives who have invested in the "medical" marijuana business or receive funds from investors? 

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s political party known for getting cannabis partially legalized in the kingdom, the Bhumjaithai Party, has accused rivals of playing politics with its flagship policy ahead of a May 14 election, warning that marijuana reform is non-negotiable if it is to join any government coalition.

What goes around comes around.

Anutin thought this was going to be a vote winner for him, maybe he mis-calculated.

[thaichina]

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

What goes around comes around.

Anutin thought this was going to be a vote winner for him, maybe he mis-calculated.

How about you stop babling on every weed thread? You were from the " I m in Thailand for 150 years and trust me it s never gonna happen " crew, didn t it teach you anything?

I myself bet that you will be wrong again, it seems that it will be a big winner for him but wait and see. You like Anutin or not, I personally don t care, but this was a brilliant political move, that s a fact! Everybody is talking about this topic, no one really cared about Anutin before.

[stoner]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

“We don’t want any more weed. We’re done with it,” Pheu Thai Secretary-General Prasert Chanruangthong told a campaign event last week.

stop smoking dirty imports then. 

[lesmac]

Yea ban the weed and allow the Yabba losers to rape/kill their mothers family members

[jingjai9]

I would love to see statistics and a categorization of medical problems cannabis has caused the general public, i.e. empirical data with details from medical and psychiatric professionals on  specific cases and the number of cases nationwide.

 

So far I have heard about the pros and cons of legalizing weed, but there is a dearth of supporting evidence. I guess that is because in the age of social media it is more important to have an opinion than knowledge of a given subject matter. 

 

 

[JayBird]

6 hours ago, Pouatchee said:

Much ado about nothing, and now if the party poopers get their way, easy going potheads are going to start filling the jail cells once again. Moreover, the government now has a list of people who legally registered to grow at home and sell in shops to chase down and send to the gallows. Life sucks sometimes.

Like an overly complicated form of entrapment

[JayBird]

Is this like the only issue they are talking about?  All the other problems solved?

[stoner]

1 hour ago, jingjai9 said:

i.e. empirical data with details from medical and psychiatric professionals on  specific cases and the number of cases nationwide.

and you want this to happen here in thailand ? 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, thaichina said:

How about you stop babling on every weed thread? You were from the " I m in Thailand for 150 years and trust me it s never gonna happen " crew, didn t it teach you anything?

I myself bet that you will be wrong again, it seems that it will be a big winner for him but wait and see. You like Anutin or not, I personally don t care, but this was a brilliant political move, that s a fact! Everybody is talking about this topic, no one really cared about Anutin before.

He has the same rights as you to respond on any thread he wants to, as do you. I, and anybody else.

 

And very few people care about Anutin now either.