Thailand to start testing medical marijuana on patients

Thailand is poised to start its first tests of cannabis oil on patients, a health official said Friday, as excitement swirls around a new industry that could create money-making avenues for entrepreneurs while offering relief for suffering patients. Marijuana has been used as a traditional herb for centuries in Thailand but was banned decades ago.

The junta’s parliament voted in December to legalise it for medical purposes. Thailand is the first in Southeast Asia to embrace medical marijuana though recreational use remains illegal. Now state-sanctioned clinical trials testing the impact of cannabis oil on selected patients will be held as early as July, according to Nuntakan Suwanpidokkul, director of research and development at the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO). ]

Extracts or “sublingual drops” will be administered during the tests to volunteers suffering from nausea and pain from chemotherapy, among other ailments. “We will use cannabis plants to extract oil for finished products,” Nuntakan told AFP, adding that “we hope to begin in July or August”. They will come from the government-managed indoor plantation that opened last month on the outskirts of Bangkok. It has around 140 plants cultivated under controlled lighting, temperatures and a misting system known as aeroponics.