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 With parliament set to approve the legislation as early as next
month, Thai businesses and activists have raised concerns that a
raft of patent requests filed by foreign firms could allow them to
dominate the market and make it harder for researchers to access
marijuana extracts.
"Granting these patents is scary because it blocks innovation and
stops other businesses and researchers from doing anything related
with cannabis," said Chokwan Kitty Chopaka, an activist with
Highlands Network, a cannabis legalization advocacy group in
Thailand.
"We were very shocked to see this because it would be like allowing
them to patent water and its uses," Chokwan said, adding that
applicants are seeking patents for plant-related substances, which
are not allowed under Thai law.
Opposition to foreign firms has threatened to stall the legalization
process, with researchers and civic networks threatening to sue the
government if the patents are granted, according to media.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has been urged to issue an
executive order to end the impasse, but a national government
spokesman said there were no plans to do so yet.
"We will proceed normally through the Commerce Ministry first. We
must let everything proceed without harming people's rights," said
Puttipong Punnakanta.
Thailand's move to allow the use of marijuana for medical and
research purposes follows a wave of legalization across the globe,
including in Colombia, Israel, Denmark, Britain and certain U.S.
states. Uruguay and Canada have gone one step further and also
legalized recreational use.
Thailand's neighbors Malaysia and Singapore are in the early stages
of debating whether to legalize medical marijuana, but it is a
sensitive issue because the drug remains illegal and taboo across
much of Southeast Asia.
The region has some of the world's harshest penalties, including
lengthy prison terms for possession of drugs in Thailand, and
capital punishment in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia for
trafficking. In the Philippines, thousands of people have been
killed since 2016 in President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-narcotics
crackdown.
Among a handful of foreign companies that are looking to enter the
Thai market are British giant GW Pharmaceuticals and Japan's Otsuka
Pharmaceutical, which have jointly applied for marijuana-related
patents.
Representatives for GW Pharma and Otsuka declined to comment on
their applications.
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"We haven't seen progress on our patent registration maybe because
many people are opposed to allowing foreign drugmakers to enter the
market. I feel like we are seeing a high bar on this," said one
foreign company official, who declined to be identified because of
the sensitivity of the issue.
PART OF THAI CULTURE
Thais used marijuana in traditional medicine for centuries before it
was banned in 1934. Farmers were known to use it as a muscle relaxer
after a day in the fields and it was reportedly used to ease womens'
labor pains.
In fact, the word 'bong', which describes a water pipe often used to
smoke weed, comes from the Thai language.
Experts say Thailand, already a regional hub for medical tourism,
has a combination of factors working in favor of legalization,
including a tropical climate that could allow for cheaper production
of marijuana than, for instance, in Canada.
Businesses want to use this to cash in on what Deloitte says could
be a global legal medical cannabis market worth more than $50
billion by 2025.
For Thai Cannabis Corporation (TCC), a majority Thai-owned entity
that is waiting for legalization to obtain a license to sell
cannabis-derived ingredients to manufacturers, the move would be "a
return to centuries-old tradition".
"The attitude is that it's already a part of traditional medicine
... and we should ensure that Thais can control their own industry,"
said Jim Plamondon, marketing head of TCC, which is currently not in
business.
The government earlier this year rejected calls to decriminalize
recreational use of the drug.
Instead, the new law will reclassify marijuana as a narcotic whose
extracts can be used in traditional Thai medicine, and to treat
drug-resistant epilepsy and pain and nausea in cancer patients.
Research will be permitted into the use of marijuana to treat
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, according to Dr. Sophorn
Mekthon, chairman of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation.
"What is most important in the whole debate is the accessibility of
medical marijuana to patients," he said.
(Additional reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat in Bangkok and
Takashi Umekawa in Tokyo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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