Thailand makes pot legal, but smoking discouraged

(9 Jun 2022)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4383470
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bangkok - 9 June 2022
1. Marijuana in jar
HEADLINE: Thailand makes pot legal, but smoking discouraged
2. Customer Rittipong Bachkul entering Highland Cannabis Cafe in Bangkok, people cheering
3. Café worker taking product from shelf and handing to Rittipong
ANNOTATION: Cannabis advocates at a cafe in Bangkok celebrate the first day of eased rules around the sale and use of marijuana.
4. Rittipong sniffing cannabis
5. Product on shelf
ANNOTATION: Customers who turned up at the Highland Cafe chose from a variety of buds with names like Sugarcane, Bubblegum, Purple Afghani, and UFO.
6. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Rittipong Bachkul, first customer at Highland Café:
"I can say it out loud that I'm a cannabis smoker. I don't need to hide it like in the past when it was branded an illegal drug."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bangkok - 27 May 2022
7. Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvikul drinking cannabis-based products at event at the Ministry
8. Cannabis-based products
ANNOTATION: The government said it is promoting cannabis for medical use only. It warns that public smoking could be considered a nuisance, subject to jail and fines.
9. Various of cannabis products
ANNOTATION: Extracted content remains illegal if it contains more than 0.2% of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical that makes people high.
10. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Anutin Charnvikul, Public Health Minister:
"We should know how to use cannabis. If we have the right awareness, cannabis is like gold."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sri Racha - 5 June 2022
11. Staff from Goldenleaf Hemp company showing prospective cannabis farmers how to look after the plants
12. Prospective farmers tending plants
ANNOTATION: Many are keen to move into the marijuana sector. Entrepreneurs and farmers visit a farm in Sri Racha to learn tips on nicking seeds and tending plants.
13. Workers tending to plants
14. Close-up of leaves
ANNOTATION: Economic benefits are at the heart of the marijuana reforms, projected to boost everything from national income to small farmers' livelihoods.
STORYLINE:
It's now legal to cultivate and possess marijuana in Thailand, but the country still discourages smoking pot and getting high.
Processed products containing more than a tiny amount of THC, the chemical that makes people high, are still illegal.
The government also is warning those eager to light up for fun that smoking in public could be considered a nuisance subject to jail time and fines.
  
Thailand mainly wants to make a splash in the market for medical marijuana.
It already has a well-developed medical tourism industry and its tropical climate is ideal for growing marijuana.
The country's public health minister plans to begin distributing 1 million marijuana seedlings for cultivation on Friday.
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