A plant out of place

Speakers at last weekend’s public forum on legalising marijuana in Thailand – and the young man parading around a “Free Weed” banner – were basically “preaching to the converted”. Everyone present for the discussion at the Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre agreed that ganja – as it is most commonly known here – has been unfairly demonised for far too long.
And that included the representatives of law enforcement on hand.
Interestingly, the suggestion was made that the military-led government invoke the interim constitution’s draconian Article 44 to pull pot off the banned-substances list. It gives the junta sweeping discretionary power. But the notion got little traction among participants.
Hopes and expectations buoyed by the legalisation of cannabis in recent years in the Netherlands, Uruguay and the American states Colorado, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, more than 450 people turned out for the forum “Where is the freedom for marijuana?” organised by iLaw, a non-governmental organisation founded by Jon Ungpakorn that addresses judicial and rights issues.
It was the second such public discussion on marijuana in Thailand, whose subtropical heat and humidity comprise perfect conditions for growing ganja, whether for pleasure or profit, for medical use or, cultivated without the psychoactive ingredients, as hemp to be turned into rope and livestock feed.
“The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – UNODC – has made a demon out of cannabis,” noted Veeraphan Ngamee of the Ozone Foundation, who admitted to occasionally indulging in the illegal drug. “Smoking marijuana, it says on its website, can harm the user in several ways, including brain damage and sexual dysfunction. Come on, UNODC – smoking a joint will hurt your sex life? I totally disagree!
In fact cigarettes and whiskey are far worse than cannabis in terms of the harm caused by abuse, and yet these drugs of a sort are legally sold commercially.”
In contrast to tobacco and hard spirits, he pointed out, cannabis offers health benefits if consumed responsibly. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy can avoid the characteristic nausea and vomiting by smoking or ingesting small amounts.
While people in the Middle East and South Asia have long relied on the hashish resin from female cannabis plants as a relaxant, Thais have been using the leaves of the pot plant for centuries for the same purpose. In the kitchen, a few dried cannabis buds enliven the flavour of chicken curry, and many food vendors in the city streets commonly add ganja to their beef noodles – with the tacit or overt approval of their customers. Songs-for-life band Carabao has a tune about marijuana’s psychoactive effects, and there’s even a band named Marijuana that’s also quite popular.
As ingrained in the culture as cannabis is, however, the plant’s medicinal merits rather than recreational (or culinary) use have been the focus of legalisation efforts around the world. Current Thai law, though, keeps the door to research closed, blocking the scientific approach to reform that is steadily prompting more US states to cautiously legalise the drug.
Thailand’s Narcotic Drug Act of 1979 lists cannabis in Category 5 alongside the leaves of the mitragyna plant, widely available as krathom, which has similar psychoactive effects. Cannabis cannot be cultivated here even for medical research, in contrast to the US government’s formal permission granted to the University of Mississippi to conduct studies. If Thai pharmacologists need to know more about the potential of cannabis to ease the symptoms of disease, they can only consult the medical journals.
Assistant Professor Niyada Kiatying went as far as to call the benefits of cannabis “a mythical thing” when it comes to the field of pharmacology. “We might hear about medical marijuana through word of mouth,” she said at the forum, “but we don’t have any research to confirm the claims, so the whole area remains uncertain.”
With clinical studies of this avenue of alternative medicine barred by law, Thai society hears only tales of toxic poisoning and hallucinations.
“After a few puffs I sort of feel like I’m a bird,” said an occasional smoker, an Indian woman. “Once I actually floated out of my home to pick up my kid from kindergarten.” Mother and child were able to walk home without incident, but the danger was clear to others at the forum – had she been driving her car, she could have “floated” into oncoming traffic. Few disagree that there are hazards to cannabis use, requiring a level of personal responsibility, if not state control.
“My brother is a medical student and he’s often told me about the successes there have been with medical marijuana,” a Chulalongkorn University engineering student said. “For example, a small amount of marijuana relieves chronic nerve pain due to injury as well as the side effects of chemotherapy.
“What I am trying to say is that cannabis holds great interest for medical science. Unfortunately, the law and the threat of drug busts leave no chance for researchers. We should help pass a new law to legalise cannabis – at least for medical studies. Nothing should stop us from claiming our right to access to knowledge.”
Serious legal issues aside, any discussion about marijuana is bound to produce some giggles. The college student wielding the “Free Weed” banner proudly announced that he’d even waved it on the public bus on his way to the forum from Nonthaburi. “And I had a few puffs in the toilet before the forum started,” he admitted.
A social researcher was not amused by the young man’s approach, however. Advocates won’t get the law changed by waving banners or staging a “smoke-in” in front of Government House, she said. They have to behave reputably to gain the public’s trust. Otherwise their opponents can claim that the real objective of legalising pot for medical use is to make it easier for people to obtain it for recreation.
Another speaker described a medical use for ganja less dire than those involving cancer and other chronic ailments, but equally sound. “I grew up in a family where everyone was always fighting and yelling,” said the man in his 30s. “It drove me crazy, but smoking marijuana calmed me down. It probably saved me from a lifetime anxiety disorder.”
The discussion ranged through various aspects of the issue – such as how many plants might be grown and still be legally considered “for personal use”? Several ideas were reviewed for revamping the law, including the deployment of Article 44. But no concrete proposals emerged. Everyone seemed to agree that marijuana must be decriminalised, yet no one was sure where to begin.
“I agree with every idea that’s been mentioned – except using Article 44,” Jon Ungpakorn said in his closing remarks. “I think we should try to get 10,000 people to sign a petition for a new draft cannabis law, and I believe we could get more than 10,000 people.”