A subcommittee on Economic Affairs in Thailand has reported that medical cannabis will be raised to the status of an economic crop and exported around the world. Yesterday a government sub-committee studying the draft law on cannabis cultivation in Thailand told the Nation.
The subcommittee said Thai farmers should also be able to access both certified commercial cannabis seeds and generate their own seed stocks, said Weerachai Na Nakorn, a consultant to a community cannabis company.
The Government panel agreed to promote Thai medical cannabis in the markets of Asia, Europe and the USA. Weerachai spoke at a seminar organized by the cannabis company of the Play La Ploen community.
Large areas of Thailand are apt for medical cannabis cultivation. In addition, cannabis will significantly increase incomes in both the agricultural and associated industrial sectors. Studies on medical cannabis crops, which were legalized last year, have been carried out.
Thailand currently has only four cultivars of cannabis (RPF1-4) and needs more varieties to grow. Above all, Weerachai said to support industrial production.
Every different cultivar of cannabis has unique characteristics and is suited to a particular geography, he added. Some are more fibrous; some produce lots of seeds, and some are high in cannabidiol and compounds associated with it.
The Play La Ploen enterprise is collaborating on a pilot contract farming project with the Government Pharmaceutical Organization to grow high-CBD medical marijuana and build a network of community producers.
Thanaporn Pornsangkul, a scientist at the community enterprise Play La Ploen, said the pilot project is cultivating two strains of marijuana, a Thai and a foreign cultivar. The goal is to produce cannabis drugs for more than 20 hospitals in Nakhon Ratchasima, Chaiyaphum, Buriram and Surin in the northeast.
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