BANGKOK: Hospital emergency services have been seeing more cases linked to cannabis use since the narcotic was decriminalised just more than a month ago.
According to a Bangkok Post report, the Medical Council of Thailand said this was mainly due to the use of cannabis in food or snacks.
The council said in a Facebook posting that since June 9, many consumers of cannabis have suffered acute illness, hallucinations and hurt themselves and others.
"The load on emergency rooms has increased unnecessarily. Do not add cannabis or hemp to food or snacks for people to consume," the council wrote.
It further warned against the use of cannabis as an ingredient in food and snacks for all consumers, as cannabis also had long term negative impacts on brain growth and development in children.
Cannabis must not be used by pregnant women, breast feeding mothers or people aged 25 years or younger due to the harm it causes to young brains, it said.
The medical council has also advised people not to use cannabis for recreation, saying the use of cannabis buds would cause serious deterioration of users' health.
It also disagreed on using cannabis as the first choice for the treatment of illness, saying the narcotic should be the last resort if other standard medications did not bear results.
Cannabis cannot cure an illness, and should only be used to relieve symptoms temporarily, the council said in the posting.
Meanwhile the Post reports Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul saying his Bhumjaithai Party had been touting a policy of decriminalising cannabis during the past election campaign.
As the party won 40 to 50 parliament seats in the last polls, he said it was part of the current government and it could not discard the policy.
Anutin, who is the Bhumjaithai Party leader, said the policy was being implemented successfully and people have started to understand that the policy was meant to contribute to medicine and health.
"The people who understand us are giving us moral support," he said, while reiterating that the recreational use of cannabis was an abuse.
Meanwhile, fed up with waiting for the enactment of a national cannabis control law, which is still weeks or months away, the city of Pattaya is planning to draft its own regulations.
It will focus mainly on its use related to schools and youths.
According to a Pattaya Mail report, the city's Deputy Mayor Thitiphan Phettrakul recently chaired a meeting to come up with rules that will be needed to control and prohibit cannabis and hemp use in schools.
Although Thailand has decriminalised the narcotic, it has done so without first passing supporting laws that govern what ages, demographic groups or geographical locations where it can or can't be sold and used.
Such laws are being drawn up and it is expected to be tabled in the coming parliament session.
Since its decriminalisation, the Public Health Ministry has been issuing additional regulations such as banning its sale to minors, pregnant and breast feeding women.
The Mail report said Thailand currently only had 'nuisance laws' to regulate its use in public.
Pattaya city council will also organise a meeting with school and other officials to discuss and draft prevention measures.
Thitiphan said the city also wants feedback from parents about what rules are needed over the matter.
She said regulations could include conditions such as no cannabis can be used in food provided in schools and that it can be used only with a doctor's prescription.