Second reading of marijuana bill delayed for ‘more urgent matters'

The second reading of the bill was initially scheduled for next Wednesday when the House would continue deliberating Section 4.

But during the meeting of the whips, Chuan said the House needed to use next week’s meeting to consider whether to reaffirm five bills that have been passed in three readings by the Senate but were changed significantly.

Chuan said the five bills are the architect regulation bill, the labour protection bill, the marine navigation bill, the pension fund bill, and the student loan bill.

The House speaker told the whips that the House would resume the second reading of the cannabis/hemp bill on January 4.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to remove Section 3 from the cannabis-hemp bill and started deliberations on Section 4. Section 3 specified that cannabis and hemp are not considered narcotics under the Narcotic Drugs Act.

The House committee that vetted the bill proposed the deletion on grounds that it was not necessary as hemp and cannabis have already been removed from the Narcotics Category 5 list by a Public Health Ministry directive.

Chuan said he realised that some MPs would like to skip next week’s meeting for holiday travels but it is still an official working day so he instructed the coalition and opposition whips to tell MPs in both camps to attend the meeting in full force.

Chuan said the House and Senate will also have joint sittings on January 10 and 11 to deliberate a bill on media ethics, the national education bill and a bill on charter amendments proposed by the Pheu Thai Party.

Chinnaworn Boonyakiat, Democrat MP who is deputy coalition chief whip, said he believed MPs would attend the meeting in full force because the drafts that are scheduled to be considered are crucial for the country.

Chinnaworn added that the opposition whips also said their MPs would not skip the meeting next week.

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Parliament deletes Section 3 of cannabis bill, leaving herb in legal limbo