Thailand is set to hand out one million free cannabis plants to households across the nation, marking the introduction of a new rule allowing citizens to grow their own plants from home. 9News READ MORE:
The move is the latest step in Thailand's plan to promote cannabis as a cash crop.In a region notorious for harsh penalties towards illegal drugs, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia in 2018 to legalise cannabis for medical research and use.Thai drinks and cosmetics companies last year rushed to launch products with hemp and CBD, a compound that does not give users a high, after their use was approved for consumer goods.
In a further Facebook post on May 10, Anutin noted that Thai companies registered to do so could sell cannabis products that contained less than 0.2 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the part of the plant responsible for getting people high. "This will enable people and the government to generate more than 10 billion baht per year in revenue from marijuana and hemp," Anutin wrote.Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced the move in a Facebook post on May 8 in which he expressed his intention for cannabis plants to be grown like "household crops".