BANGKOK, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul on Tuesday reiterated that all cannabis grown in an industrial scale in Thailand is only for licensed medical use.
Anutin warned that those found to use cannabis for entertainment use will face the Thai law.
In Chiang Mai Province, Anutin witnessed the largest batch of 12,000 cannabis sprouts ever planted in the country at Maejo University.
Maejo University said that the produce is expected to be harvested in early 2020 for use in treatment and medical research.
Anutin said research and developing cannabis to hemp strains is a government policy and endorsed by universities, private and public hospitals across the country.
The Health Minister also said that 2.4 tons of dried cannabis from the 12,000 cannabis sprouts planted, will be delivered to the Pharmaceutical Government Organization (GPO) and its network partners by February 2020.
"We expect the cannabis-based drugs to be available through licensed medical institutions including public and private hospitals as well as clinics in the future," said Anutin. "Of course we need to test run the program over and over again until the hemp oil meets quality standard.
The Department of Medical Service (DMS) under the Health Ministry will then conclude if the hemp oil is safe to use, said Anutin.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) previously said it has used the first lot of hemp oil for cancer cell research in test tubes to study the effects of inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells.
The NCI is currently waiting for the experimental results.
