Asia's Cannabis Frontier: Thailand

Thailand is emerging as the leading market landscape of cannabis in Asia and thus emphasizing the continent's fame critically.

FREMONT, CA: Cannabis, earlier known for its outdated and harmful drug control policies, is experiencing a transition with more sensible, supportive, and economically sound policies that will likely favor its re-liberalization in Asia. Additionally, the enhanced health and financial benefits of legalizing cannabis in North America have possibly instigated Asia to adopt the same for reliable growth in varied sectors, be it medicine or the economy. Therefore, the prohibition of cannabis is no more a politically justifiable position, considering the benefits it could seriously proffer to a nation's economy.

Consequently, industry innovators predict that total sales of medical and non-medical cannabis in Asia, valued at up to 14 million USD, will skyrocket to around 140 million USD. According to this, the overall value of domestic production in the export market can rise due to effective competition from international suppliers.

Although cannabis use is increasing across Asia, Thailand has emerged as a pioneering nation at the forefront of cannabis liberalization in South East Asia. With the decriminalization of medical cannabis in 2018, the industry has taken another step forward by legalizing cannabis plant parts, permitting easier commercialization. Consequently, Thai residents register and cultivate cannabis at home for medical purposes or as ingredients, utilizing the Plook Ganja mobile application.

Because of the country's extensive legal grey market and the domain's fast development of legislation, Thailand appears as a great example of different Asian nations exploring the adult-use cannabis sector in Asia. Yet, dealing with the legal grey and illicit market needs distinct consideration while integrating with the expanded possibility of legacy growers mainly reliant on production. Therefore, the Ministry of Public Health issued a statement stating that despite temporarily averting the recreational application of cannabis, its medical and industrial applications have grown remarkably in recent years. Besides, they are expected to cultivate even more in the future.

Thailand's medical cannabis landscape is meeting a major outgrowth according to two likely bases: modern medicine and Thai traditional medicine. While the modern criterion concentrates on isolating or tincturing CBD (Cannabidiol) and THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) for the treatment of different conditions, Cannabis Thai traditional medicine incorporates the cannabis or CBD parts with other herbs or natural oils and, thus, has been an important part of Thai history for centuries.