The cabinet of ministers in Thailand managed to get majority support for a ministerial rule which makes production, import, and export of hemp legal in the country. The move was in response to a plea made last year by Public Health Ministry to take out hemp from the record of narcotics.
Deputy government spokesperson, Traisulee Traisoranakul in her statement, said that the new regulation would overrule the existing hemp regulation. She said that according to the new rules, individuals and juristic entities registered in Thailand have the permission for hemp cultivation for commercial use. Once individuals or juristic entities get permission, they can legally produce, sell, possess, import or export hemp. The juristic entities to be eligible for applying for permission at least two-thirds of the entity should be owned by Thai nationals or the executive board should have that many.
With this move, the government intends to promote hemp as a cash crop and improve native Thai varieties. Families traditionally using hemp to create clothes will be permitted to cultivate hemp on a maximum of one rai, only if they have a license.
As per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the majority of the indigenous hemp strains found in Thailand have superb fiber quality and are also low on THC and CBD, the main psychoactive components that give cannabis plants the high. Derivatives of the hemp plant can be used as key ingredients in the manufacture of various food and cosmetic products; the country can earn huge profit from this, believes FDA.