Thai medical marijuana craze as people rush to grow drug now it’s legal, and government encourages hospitals to champion its use
- Thailand was the first Southeast Asian country to legalise cannabis for medical use, although possession of the plant has not been decriminalised yet
- First government marijuana clinic has opened, and villagers in the country’s northeast used to rice growing have been asked to cultivate the plant for hospitals
Dr Ganja is a bespectacled green cuddly toy whose job is to educate Thailand about the benefits of medical marijuana.
The squishy toy is the latest illustration of the nation’s embrace of medical cannabis, an industry poised to expand to more than US$660 million by 2024 from an estimate of US$300,000 last year. The biggest cheerleader of the business opportunity may be a surprise: Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.
Anutin, a former business tycoon, wants to add cannabis plantations and processing facilities, and scale up local hospitals in Buriram, a northeastern farming province, to become champions of medical marijuana. This is a crop that some in the province – better known for rice cultivation – had until recently never seen, let alone sought to grow.
“People here have ganja fever,” said Thanaporn Pornsangakul, a scientist at Pela Plern Herbal Development Centre, which is responsible for growing and supplying medical marijuana plants to Buriram’s only internationally accredited hospital. “There are so many who are interested in growing.”