THAILAND plans to legalise all parts of the cannabis plant next year, making the plant fully usable for commercial purposes.
Its Ministry of Public Health said it will push for the legalisation next year and remove all hurdles towards making the plant a commercial crop.
Thailand had previously removed stems, roots, leaves and sprigs of cannabis from its banned narcotics list, but kept flowers and buds on it.
However, the new Narcotics Code, which took effect on Thursday, no longer has cannabis and hemp on it.
According to a Bangkok Post report, minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the next step was for the ministry to announce a revised narcotics list of all five categories based on the new law.
"What we have achieved so far is to declare that cannabis stems, roots, leaves and sprigs are not drugs. Starting next year, we'll remove everything — stems, roots, sprigs, leaves, buds, flowers and seeds — from the narcotics list," he said.
He added that cannabis in all but one form will no longer be on it.
The only exception is cannabidiol (CBD) extracts with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) of more than 0.2 per cent.
Once the new list comes into effect, all cannabis products such as oil, soap, cosmetics and supplements, which normally have less than 0.2 per cent of THC, can be made and used freely.
He added that this was number was according to the World Health Organisation's standard.
Anutin said this when launching a "Cannabis Kickoff on Mekong Bank" event in Nakhon Phanom province on Saturday.
He said the easing of the rules aims to encourage people to grow and process cannabis to supplement their incomes, which will in turn stimulate the economy and agricultural tourism.
The Post report said there will be no restrictions of how many plants each household can grow and the only requirement is for people to get permission from authorities before planting it.
The Thai Food and Drug Administration has also been told to streamline and facilitate the process of seeking the approval.
Anutin said village health volunteers will be urged to inform people that almost all hospitals in Thailand now have cannabis clinics offering alternative medicine.
Thailand next plans to put approved medicines with cannabis extracts on the main drug list that will be available to the public.
Anutin said people have been hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the cannabis initiative would help.
"When the economy is picking up and we don't have new products as alternatives, people will keep doing the same things and competing with one another," he said.
"But if we offer them a choice, they can learn to build on it, creating new products and business models, which will in turn speed up the economic recovery."
The ministry also has a policy to promote other herbs such as hemp and kratom.