Thai cannabis groups rally against plan to relist plant as drug

A staff member of a cannabis shop uses his mobile outside the shop in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Dozens of pro-cannabis advocates in Thailand gathered at the health ministry on Thursday to oppose the government’s plan to relist the plant as a narcotic, two years after it was decriminalised. - AP

BANGKOK (Bloomberg): Cannabis advocacy groups in Thailand urged the government to reconsider a plan to relist marijuana as a narcotic to protect the interest of a nascent industry and a large community of weed growers.

Supporters rallied in Bangkok and other cities on Thursday to protest Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s order earlier this month to re-criminalize cannabis. Members of Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future, an advocacy group, gathered at the Health Ministry office in the Thai capital and handed a petition to minister Somsak Thepsutin against reclassifying marijuana as a "category five” drug again.