From the Associate editor
A few weeks ago, Thai policymakers announced that a new law prohibiting smoking in one’s own home would come into effect on 20 August 2019. Comparing secondhand smoke to domestic abuse, officials said secondhand smoke would cause health problems for other family members, especially children.
Nattira Medvedeva
Nattira Medvedeva, Associate Editor
Initiated by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, the 2019 Family Development and Protection Act gave smokers 90 days to quit the habit or be tried in either the juvenile or criminal courts. If found guilty, the court can order violators to stop smoking in the house and/or undertake a course to quit smoking. However, as tends to be the case, it was unclear exactly how the law was to be enforced.
Understandably, the announcement of this new policy caused much confusion and incredulity. It was difficult for many to fathom why the government’s long arm was stretching that far into people’s private domain. Smoking is already banned in many public places and government buildings in Thailand, including at the country’s airports. Where were smokers supposed to smoke, especially if they couldn’t even do that in the privacy of their own homes? There are a few examples of things we shouldn’t do in public but can do in private at home, and smoking isn’t – nor should it be – one of those things.
Three days after the announcement came out, a health ministry official tried to clarify the matter by saying that the law does not actually seek to ban smoking in people’s homes. However, in his explanation he said that the new law was meant to “protect children and other vulnerable people from the negative health effects of secondhand smoke inside homes where the smoker is inflicting their habit on other residents or family members.” Not sure how that changes things, but, okay, if you say so.
The situation with this new law would be ridiculously funny and outrageous in any country in the world, but the fact that Thailand is the first country in Asia to decriminalize medical marijuana with various government offices jumping on this trend and planning to cultivate cannabis as well as develop and export CBD products makes this new law even more outrageous. If people can’t smoke tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes are not an alternative since they’re banned, is the government actually trying to push people to smoking cannabis instead? It would certainly be a lucrative revenue source to fill the government’s coffers.
As of June 2019, the US state of Colorado has collected a cumulative US$1.02 billion from marijuana taxes, licenses, and fees since they first legalized cannabis in 2014. Imagine how much tax could be collected if the entire country could only smoke or consume cannabis and nothing else?