Thailand legalizes cannabis
Country removes marijuana from its list of controlled narcotics
Editorial Team (ET)May 8, 2025
Two years after Thailand became the first country to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes, it has taken another step towards becoming the first Southeast Asian country to decriminalize the drug. Yesterday Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed a ministerial memorandum officially removing cannabis and hemp from Category 5 of Thailand's drug list.
At the signing ceremony, Anutin, who has led Thailand's push towards decriminalization since his Bhumjaithai party made cannabis legalization a key campaign promise for the 2019 election, expressed hope that the move would mark the beginning of a "new history for cannabis" in Thailand marked. "Cannabis actually has many medicinal benefits, not unlike other herbs, and we are trying our best for the Thai people to derive both medicinal and economic benefits from it," the minister said.
While Thailand legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes in 2020, the law only allowed the use of cannabis oil for treatments. According to the Associated Press, yesterday's repeal, which comes into effect 120 days after publication in the Royal Gazette, means all parts of the marijuana plant, including its flowers and seeds, can be legally consumed in Thailand. However, the extracted content remains illegal if it has a THC content above 0.2 percent. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive compound in cannabis.
Of course, Anutin is not a radical proponent of legalization. He's less concerned with legalizing recreational marijuana use and more concerned with promoting the medicinal use of the plant and building a commercial industry to serve that medicinal demand.
Therefore, production and sale of the herb will remain regulated under the new regulations, and it will continue to be against the law to grow and use marijuana. Anutin said a bill on cannabis and hemp will be put before Parliament to clarify the precise legal framework for production and sale.
Nonetheless, the removal of cannabis from Thailand's Category 5 list of narcotics, which includes opium, is an important step. As I wrote in this year's The Diplomat magazine (subscribe here), the Anutin's push for legalization "represents a bright beacon of sanity in Southeast Asia, where most countries have a highly punitive anti-drug regime with little or no distinction between marijuana and harder drugs."
The legalization move also doesn't seem to fit in with the reactionary government of Prayut Chan-o-cha, which came to power in a 2014 coup and is anything but liberal. Prayut's government has shown no mercy in the wave of youth-led pro-democracy protests calling for democratic political reform, and has notoriously been intolerant of criticism. Simply put, this is not a government that one would expect to be tolerant of cannabis use - but it is a relief to see that Thailand is moving forward on at least one point under Prayut's watch.
