Over 150,000 people in Thailand rush to register for cannabis planting as crop Is legalised

Vendors sell strains of cannabis to celebrate the legalization of cannabis at the “Thailand 420: Legalaew!” weekend festival hosted by Highland in Nakhon Pathom province. - AFP

BANGKOK, June 12 (Bloomberg): More than 150,000 people registered to grow marijuana and hemp in Thailand this week as the country became the first in Asia to decriminalize cannabis in a bid to promote its wider use in medicines, food and cosmetics.

A website created for prospective growers crashed due to the rush, prompting the Thai Food and Drug Administration to offer an alternate platform and urge people to use its mobile application. Users had accessed the FDA website and its app more than 8 million times as of 3 p.m. local time, Secretary-General Paisarn Dunkum said.