High times in Thailand: New weed laws draw tourists from across Asia
BANGKOK, July 13: A Japanese tourist reaches into a baggie of cannabis he’s just bought in a central Bangkok weed shop, pulling out a gram of buds to chop down in a small black grinder, before rolling them neatly into a joint.
Only the slight spillage onto the smoking lounge’s table – and his cough as he lights up and inhales deeply – betray the fact that until two weeks ago, he’d never tried marijuana.
Most Asian nations have strict drug laws with harsh penalties, and Thailand’s de facto legalisation of marijuana last year has brought a wave of tourists from the region like the visitor from Japan, intrigued by the lure of the forbidden leaf.
“I was curious about how I would feel after smoking,” said the 42-year-old tourist who spoke on condition that his name not be used, for fear his experimentation in Bangkok could lead to legal issues at home.
“I wonder why Japan bans it?” he pondered. “I wanted to try it.” Even as more countries around the world legalise marijuana, Thailand has been the outlier in Asia, where several countries still have the death penalty for some cannabis offenses.
Singapore has already executed two people this year for trafficking marijuana and its Central Narcotics Bureau has announced plans to randomly test people returning from Thailand. Japan does not have the death penalty for drug offenses, but has warned that its laws on cannabis use may apply to its nationals even when they are abroad.
China has been more explicit, with its embassy in Thailand warning that if Chinese tourists consume marijuana abroad and are “detected upon returning to China, it is considered equivalent to using drugs domestically.
As a result, you will be subject to corresponding legal penalties.” It issues similar warnings for travel to other countries where marijuana is readily available, such as the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.
On a recent flight from the Chinese city of Shanghai, passengers were cautioned not to “accidentally” try marijuana in Bangkok, with an announcement that in Thailand “some food and drink can include cannabis, so please pay attention to the leaf logo on the package of food.” Neither Chinese nor Singaporean authorities would detail how frequently they tests citizens returning from countries where marijuana has been decriminalised, responding to queries from the AP simply by reiterating their previously-announced policies.
It’s no wonder that weed dispensaries in Bangkok say that customers from Singapore and China are among the most cautious, asking questions about how long traces of the drug remain in the system and whether there are detox products.
But many remain undeterred, and Thailand’s cannabis industry has grown at lightning speed, with weed dispensaries now almost as common as the ubiquitous convenience stores in some parts of the capital. (AP)
UK government offers millions of public sector workers pay raises in push to end strikes
LONDON, July 13: The British government has agreed to offer millions of public sector workers pay raises in a bid to end an array of strikes, including a five-day walkout from doctors in the early part of their career in Britain’s publicly funded health service.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed Thursday that the government was accepting the recommendations from pay review bodies, that will see police get a 7% rise, 6.5% for teachers and 6% for the junior doctors, who commenced their strike early Thursday.
He said the offer is “final” and that there will be “no more talks on pay.” In what is being described as the longest-ever strike in the National Health Service, many of the tens of thousands of doctors in England are making the case for a 35% pay bump. So-called junior doctors, those who are at the early stages of their careers in the National Health Service in the years after medical school, started their latest strike at 7 am, with many of them making their case for a 35% pay rise in picket lines outside hospitals across England. The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, has asked for a 35% pay rise to bring junior doctors’ pay back to 2008 levels once inflation is taken into account. Meanwhile, the workload of England’s 75,000 or so junior doctors has swelled as patient waiting lists for treatment are at record highs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books,” said BMA leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi.
They urged the British government, which oversees health policy in England, to drop its “nonsensical precondition” of not negotiating while strikes are in progress.
Britain, like other countries, is grappling with high inflation for the first time in years. Price rises were first stoked by supply chain issues resulting from the pandemic and then by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent energy and food prices soaring. Though inflation has come down slightly from its peak to 8.7%, it remains far above the 2% level the Bank of England is tasked to target.
The doctors’ strike will cause huge disruption for the already embattled NHS, with operations and consultations postponed or even cancelled. Dr Simon Steddon, chief medical officer at Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospital trust in south London, urged both sides to get back to the negotiating table amid concerns over the impact on patients.
He said that 55,000 appointments and nearly 6,000 planned procedures have already been cancelled or rescheduled at the hospitals he oversees as a result of previous strikes. (AP)