In 2018, Thailand decriminalised the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. From the beginning of July, Thailand will no longer class cannabis as a narcotic, the first Southeast Asian country to do so. Regional neighbours will pay close attention to what environmental and social consequences this legislative shift may incur.
According to Chicago-based veteran agricultural advisor Dave Donnan (who sits on the board of a Canadian cannabis company), the environmental impact of large-scale cannabis cultivation in the United States has been minimal, “In the US and Canada, cannabis is grown almost exclusively in green houses. You don’t even need agricultural land. You can grow it in a warehouse, very densely in a controlled environment. You can cut down on water, herbicides, fungicides and fertilisers, you can control the run-off. We do grow hemp outdoors. That requires irrigation,…
