This announcement marks another critical step in the Ministry of Health’s policy to support the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Still, it may cause people to wonder how the announcement works. BBC Thai has compiled the statement of this announcement and the concerns of medical marijuana followers to clear any doubts raised.
Unlock extract, not unlock planting
Announcement of the Ministry of Public Health Re: Specifying the name of the category five narcotics (No. 2), 2019, issued on August 30, does not remove the cannabis plant from being a drug. The announcement stated that All parts of the cannabis plant, including the leaves, flowers, shoots, and fruits, as well as substances or substances such as rubber, and oil, in the cannabis plant, including all parts of the hemp plant, are still drugs.
In addition, the Government Gazette also announced the Narcotics Control Committee. The 2019 Hemp Specification states that hemp is a subspecies of the cannabis plant with a maximum THC content in leaves and inflorescences of 0.5% per dry weight. In addition, hemp seeds are defined as having no more than 0.3% THC content in leaves and inflorescences per dry weight.
About the announcement specifying the characteristics of hemp, M.D. The secretary-general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clarified today (September 2) that the purpose was to separate cannabis and hemp. It is easier to regulate marijuana use in the future and promote hemp cultivation as a leading economic crop.
What has been removed from the drug list?
The two main active ingredients of cannabis for medical use are cannabidiol or CBD and tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which have different therapeutic properties, but THC is the active ingredient. In treating each disease, the Medical Department and the Ministry of Public Health, Therefore, contraindications for patients with specific illnesses that should not use THC.
In the Ministry of Public Health announcement, subject to specifying the name of category five narcotics (No. 2) 2019, there are unlocks as follows.
– Hemp and cannabis plant extracts include cannabidiol (CBD), which is greater than or equal to 99% pure, with a content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive substance. Not more than 0.01 percent by weight.
– Products containing CBD shop as the main ingredient and THC not more than 0.2% by weight (in cannabis and hemp), which is a drug or herbal product according to the Drug or Herbal Products Act.
– Hemp seeds, hemp oil, or hemp seed extract can be used in the food and cosmetics industry, But the seeds used must be those that cannot be fertilized or have been rendered inanimate.
– Dried bark, dried stem cores, dried fibers, and products made from this component of hemp and hemp. (There is already a control exemption under the old law.)
– All this in the first five years after the announcement of the Ministerial Regulation Assigned only to the statutory licensee’s domestic production.
What’s unlocked?
The determination of the amount of CBD and THC in this notification of the Ministry The public sector, following the utilization of medical cannabis, has its eyes on the Exclusion of hemp extract control.
The Biological Way Foundation or Bio commented on the Foundation’s Facebook page that this might be “Lock hemp” and “lock specification” CBD shop more than unlocking and implied that it is more favorable to capitalists than domestic producers.
As for the determination of the number of extracts or products from CBD shop extracts that must have low THC, according to the announcement, BioThai states that Thai hemp species have limitations. And if relying on foreign species, Public extraction of oil with 0.2% THC is not an easy task.
In this case, the Secretary-General of the FDA clarified that the intention to determine the amount as announced was to be used as “Standard substances in the lab.”
