Thailand seeks clampdown on recreational cannabis by year-end

Founder of Highland cafe Rattapon Sanrak displays flower buds of marijuana for customer at his shop in Bangkok. - AP

BANGKOK: Thailand wants to ban recreational use of cannabis by the end of this year, the nation’s health minister said, threatening to put thousands of marijuana shops and farms that have sprung up around the country since a decriminalisation drive two years ago out of business.

The nation will seek to get a new cannabis bill - which will explicitly outlaw recreational use of cannabis - approved by lawmakers in the lower house by the end of October, before parliament goes into recess, Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew told Bloomberg in an interview in Bangkok. That will follow a review by the cabinet next month, he said.