British Reuters reported on the 27th that after the legalization of marijuana in Thailand, enterprises have made a lot of money through various products containing cannabis ingredients, especially in the catering industry.
However, behind the seemingly "winning hemp" is a mess, and many people have been hospitalized and killed due to marijuana smoking.
In addition, following the proliferation of cannabis products, there have been at least 14 cases in Thailand in which children under the age of 20 have been hospitalized for consuming cannabis food and beverages, including two 5-year-old children.
Thailand is flooded with cannabis-containing foods
On June 9 this year, Thailand's marijuana legalization bill came into effect, and growing and trading cannabis in Thailand is no longer a crime.
Meanwhile, with products containing less than 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cafes and restaurants can offer foods and beverages infused with cannabis.
For a time, various products containing hemp ingredients, including tea, snacks, toothpaste, soap and so on, flooded Thai shops, and related restaurants were even more prosperous.
The restaurant sprinkles cannabis powder on the food
The owner of a Thai restaurant said in an interview with Reuters that they had previously decorated dishes with pandan leaves, but in order to attract customers, they had now changed to hemp leaves. He claimed that customers thought desserts with cannabis ingredients "helped their sleep."
Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has said legal cannabis production will boost the economy, and the value of the industry could exceed $3 billion in five years.
However, behind the seemingly "beautiful", various hidden dangers have been exposed in Thai society.
Vantani Wattana, deputy secretary of the Bangkok municipal government, said that within a week of the marijuana legalization bill going into effect, at least one person had died from marijuana smoking and many people had been hospitalized.
As a result, the Thai government continued to issue scattered regulations in an attempt to maintain order in the use of cannabis. These include banning the use of cannabis in public, prohibiting the sale of cannabis to people under the age of 20, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and retailers needing to provide precise information on the use of cannabis in food and beverages.
But that doesn't seem to have made a real difference. According to data released by Thailand's Ministry of Public Health on July 11, there were at least 14 cases of hospitalizations under the age of 20 due to the consumption of cannabis food and beverages between June 21 and July 10. Most of them have dizziness, vomiting symptoms, as well as hyperinflation, confusion and other phenomena.
The department also noted that with the legalization of marijuana, in addition to teenagers, children are also extremely vulnerable to inadvertent exposure to marijuana, leading to the appearance of illness. In the above-mentioned report, two children aged 0-5 were recruited.
Sarana Sommano, a professor at Chiang Mai University, believes that "the problem is that cannabis is no longer considered narcotic, but there are no specific regulations to regulate its use." It may have been a mistake that the government did not consider the relevant details and promulgated policies just to please the public. ”
In addition, after Thailand emphasized the use of cannabis extracts and raw materials for medical purposes, many Thai merchants began to rub the edge ball and promote products with so-called "curative effects".
The most typical example is a graph that appeared on social media in February this year, and recently began to circulate, saying that the content is "the benefits of marijuana versus the harm of alcohol."
Agence France-Presse quoted relevant medical experts from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and the Royal Thai Academy of Pediatrics as saying that the content in the above picture is purely misleading, and cannabis may have a "relieving effect" on some conditions, but the so-called "therapeutic properties" are absolutely exaggerated.
Long-term consumption of cannabis can pose risks to human body organs, such as damage to the lungs, affecting brain structure, cognitive ability and so on. In addition, "cannabis is lowly addictive", "can treat cancer and other diseases", "has a tonic health effect", etc., are all rumors.
On July 9, 851 medical staff and alumni of the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital of Marcilon University in Thailand posted a joint statement on social media asking the Thai government to close the loophole in the legalization of marijuana.
They pointed out that after Thailand declared the legalization of marijuana, various people took advantage of loopholes to cause excessive marijuana and marijuana for recreational purposes, which would seriously affect the country, especially children in Thailand.
Anutin himself acknowledged that marijuana could be legally used for medical and health purposes, but that the use of it was "inappropriate" and needed to be controlled by law.
The website of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand previously reminded that cannabis is still a strictly controlled product in the United Nations drug convention, and it is still illegal to carry and smoke marijuana in most countries. Smoking cannabis is harmful to human health. Cannabis is addictive and can affect the ability to think and judge, the ability to learn and remember, and the ability to coordinate movements in the short term; Long-term damage to nerve, cardiopulmonary and brain function.
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