NCB will be urged to consider developing herb for economic benefits
Relevant authorities have decided to push for the legalisation of kratom (Mitragyna speciosa), a herb that for years has been included in the prohibited narcotics list.
Tomorrow, a committee tasked with the development of kratom policy/law will officially recommend that Justice Minister Chaikasem Nitisiri ask the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) via the public health minister to consider three options:
l Remove kratom from the banned narcotics list;
l Declare that kratom is just a psychoactive substance;
l Or come up with ways of maximising the use of kratom for economic benefits if it decides to continue including the herb on the narcotics list.
"The committee has already discussed this issue with representatives of relevant authorities including the National Security Council and the Food and Drug Administration," ONCB secretary-general Pongsapat Pongcharoen said yesterday in his capacity as the panel's chairman.
He added that the ONCB, meanwhile, would continue researching the impact kratom users might have on national security.
FDA deputy secretary-general Viroj Verachai said yesterday that if the ONCB agreed to remove kratom from the banned narcotics list, then the public health minister had the mandate to immediately announce its removal.
An ONCB report estimates that 404,548 people in Thailand used kratom in 2011, and of them, 200,000 were in the South.
As per the report, 11,339 kilograms of kratom has already been seized this year and most of the users were farmers and workers aged between 15 and 24. The report revealed that in Australia kratom was described as a herb containing controlled substances - alkaloids - while in the US, kratom is openly sold in shops for about Bt1,000 per packet.
However, the sale of this herb is controlled in Malaysia and Myanmar. In Malaysia, the Mitragyna genus in kratom is included in the list of controlled substances and any possession of it for sale is punishable by two years in jail.
Pongsapat said if the kratom was legally listed as a psychoactive substance, the authorities would need to ensure that kratom is not processed into more powerful drugs. "Chewing kratom leaves can be allowed provided they are not processed or mixed into anything else," he said. / The Nation
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