Phuket Provincial Police Commander Pol Maj Gen Sinlert Sukhum called a meeting with the Phuket Cannabis Association earlier this week to discuss measures to monitor and inspect marijuana shops.
Officers will go out and inspect shops selling marijuana and cannabis products with the intent of enforcing the Protection and Promotion of Traditional Thai Medical Knowledge Act B.E. 2542 as amended in 2019, Maj Gen Sinlert said.
The aim of the ramped up campaign is to take care of tourists’ safety, he said.
“Officers will go out to inspect illegal marijuana shops and continue to enforce the law and order that the law be complied with correctly. Any shops found breaching the act will have their licenses suspended,” Maj Gen Sinlert warned.
At the meeting, held at the Phuket Provincial Police headquarters, were Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Pol Col Theerawat Liamsuwan and other officials, including officers from the Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO).
Leading the consortium of cannabis operators was Poonwarit ‘Thames’ Wangpatravanich, President of the Phuket Cannabis Association.
Mr Poonwarit has already expressed his support for greater regulatory enforcement regarding the cannabis industry, while still allowing medical cannabis products readily available.
“What it will be is a more structured, more regulated industry, which is good for the industry as a whole. It will be more sustainable because want anything too much or too little ‒ there needs to be a balance,” he said in May last year, when the central government was first considering making cannabis fully illegal again.
“For us to be more regulated would be the best thing that can happen to us,” Mr Poonwarit noted.