TEHRAN, December 12 -Thailand is set to become the first Asian country to legalize medical marijuana, but a battle is brewing between local and foreign firms over control of a potentially lucrative market.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC)-Thailand is set to become the first Asian country to legalize medical marijuana, but a battle is brewing between local and foreign firms over control of a potentially lucrative market.
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.
“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.
Source: Reuters