THAILAND plans to promote the use of marijuana in meals and cosmetics as the nation tries to lure foreign tourists as the demand for legal cannabis grows.
The Health and Education ministries signed an agreement last week to create a module that will impart training in recipes and methods to produce meals and products from marijuana.
According to a Bloomberg report, the health ministry said in a statement that the courses will initially be offered at educational institutions in regions with community enterprises allowed to grow the plant.
Thailand, which was one of the first countries in Asia to legalise medical marijuana in 2019, has further eased curbs on its use in textiles, herbal cosmetics and food products.
Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the wider use of the crop can strengthen Thailand's agriculture and tourism industry that's been hit hard by the pandemic restrictions.
The marijuana curriculum will be designed to "meet market demand, be legal, modern, safe and beneficial to the health and economy," Anutin said in the statement.
Marijuana-based spicy herbal soup, basil stir-fried meat, as well as dessert menus like cookies and sorbets have the potential to grow the industry, he added.
"Once the country is opened, these will be the new must-taste dishes that everyone will want to try," Anutin said.
Meanwhile, Bangkok Post reports that those who want to produce, sell or own cannabis and hemp in Thailand will be able to register from Jan 29 onwards when certain parts of the plant will be removed from its list of banned narcotics.
Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) secretary-general Paisarn Dunkum said leaves, stalks, stems and roots of the plants will be expunged from the Type 5 narcotics list.
However, this would not include seeds, including flowers, which have high drug content and individuals are not allowed to grow both cannabis and hemp.
He said that starting Jan 29, individuals, legal entities, government offices, community enterprises and companies will be able to register to use the legal parts of cannabis and hemp for medical purposes and in the textile, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.
This is a part of the government's policy to promote hemp and cannabis as a new cash crop, he said.
Paisarn explained that in Bangkok, registration applications will be received at the office of the FDA while in other provinces, each application will be received and processed by provincial public health offices.
However, any application for the import and export of hemp will have to be submitted to the FDA office.