Thailand becomes first Asian nation to make marijuana legal for medical use

The decision by the Food and Drug Administration to remove all of the plant from the category of narcotic drugs makes Thailand the first nation in Asia to decriminalise marijuana for medical and industrial use. 

• Thailand made it legal to cultivate and possess marijuana.
• Thailand’s government has warned that those eager to light up for fun that smoking in public could still be considered a nuisance, subject to a potential 3-month jail sentence and 25,000 baht ($780) fine.
• Marijuana extracts, such as oil, remain illegal if they contain more than 0.2% of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical that makes people high.

Which countries permit the use of cannabis?

• In 2018, Canada became the first G20 country to legalise the recreational use of cannabis. Meanwhile, Uruguay legalised the recreational use of marijuana for all adults above the age of 18 in 2013. Here, you can purchase weed at pharmacies.
• Several European countries — including the Netherlands, Spain and the Czech Republic — permit smoking marijuana in public places.
• In the US, consumption of marijuana is legal in at least 20 states, including Washington DC, New York and California.

Cannabis:

• Cannabis is a generic term used to denote the several psychoactive preparations of the plant Cannabis sativa.
• The major psychoactive constituent in cannabis is delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
• Compounds which are structurally similar to THC are referred to as cannabinoids.