Bill to limit households to 10 plants
A new bill being vetted by a House committee on cannabis and hemp will limit the number of cannabis plants which a household could grow to ten and require large-scale cannabis growers to pay a progressive levy to the government which increases with the size of the operation.
A spokesman for the committee, Panthep Puapongpan, said the majority of the committee’s members agreed to cap the number of cannabis plants allowed per household to ten, in order to limit the potential for abuse in the wake of the plant’s recent decriminalisation.
The committee agreed to cap the number of plants per household to ten to ensure households could still benefit from the private cultivation of cannabis, which the government is promoting as a cash crop, he said.
At least 900,000 individuals have already registered to grow cannabis at home with authorities, according to the latest figures cited by Mr Panthep.
The bill also seeks to introduce progressive levies on commercial cannabis growers.
Under the proposal, growers with less than 5 rai of land will be subject to the least levies, while those whose plots are larger will be subject to a more stringent application process and higher levies, he said.
Those who cultivate cannabis and hemp for medical purposes will be considered as an operator of a small-sized plantation and will have to comply with the same regulations when the bill becomes law, he said.
In a related news, Assoc Prof Chanchai Sittipunt, dean of Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, revealed that three individuals were recently admitted to King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital after ingesting cannabis preparations beyond their tolerance.
They were all adults who had eaten products containing cannabis, such as cookies, without knowing exactly how much active ingredients were in said products, he said.
The doctor is optimistic that “overdoses” among consumers will decline as concerned authorities, including the Department of Health, have launched a campaign to educate the public as to how much cannabis can be safely added to food preparations without causing adverse effects and/or harm to consumers.