People will be allowed to grow no more than 15 cannabis plants for household use while selling and advertising cannabis and cannabis-based products online and in vending machines will be prohibited, according to a bill on cannabis and hemp use.
Parnthep Pourpongpan, spokesman of a House committee scrutinising the bill, on Thursday revealed some further key details of the bill which will soon go before parliament for a second reading.
Mr Parnthep said Section 18 of the bill stipulates that those who want to grow cannabis plants for household use will be allowed to grow no more than 15 plants per household. They can register within one day without paying any registration fees.
People would also be allowed to grow no more than five rai of hemp plants per household for household use.
Other groups that will also be allowed to register for growing the plants include hospitals, medical practitioners, dental practitioners, Thai traditional medicine practitioners, applied Thai traditional medicine practitioners, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, state agencies, the Thai Red Cross Society, and animal hospitals, Mr Parnthep said.
They can make medicines from the plants for patients without seeking permission, he said.
As for business and commercial purposes, Section 15 stipulates that those who grow, process, and extract the plants for sale must seek permission from authorities. For small-scale business operators who grow no more than 5 rai of cannabis, if they fail to seek permission, they would be liable to a jail term of no more than one year and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht. For large-scale operators who grow more than 5 rai, if they fail to seek permission, they would face a jail term of no more than three years and/or a fine of up to 300,000 baht.
Those who export cannabis without permission would face a jail term of up to five years and/or a fine of up to 500,000 baht, Mr Parnthep said.
Those who want to grow cannabis for commercial purposes must be Thai nationals aged at least 20 years while legal entities that want to grow cannabis for commercial purposes must be owned and operated by Thais, he said.
He further said that Section 28 of the bill prohibits online advertising for the sale of cannabis flowering buds, cannabis hashish, cannabis extracts and equipment used for smoking cannabis. Violators would be liable to a jail term of no more than one year and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht. The bill also bans exaggeration or false advertising of other parts of the cannabis plant used as herbs, and violators would face a jail term of no more than one year and/or a fine of no more than 100,000 baht, Mr Parnthep said.
Section 37 also bans the sale of cannabis and hemp, their extracts and food with cannabis and hemp as ingredients to people aged below 20, pregnant women, and women who breastfeed children. Violators would face a jail term of up to one year and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht.
Section 37/1 also bans the sale of cannabis and hemp, their extracts and food with cannabis and hemp as ingredients online and in vending machines while promotional and marketing campaigns are also prohibited, he said.
Under the bill, the sale of cannabis would be prohibited in temples, religious premises, schools and educational institutes, dormitories, public parks and other premises declared by the Public Health Minister, Mr Parnthep said.
The bill also declares certain premises off-limits to cannabis smoking, including temples, public parks and restaurants.
