Intending to allow the use of the substances for personal care, medicine, and garments, the Narcotics Control Committee has come to a consensus to partially remove cannabis and hemp plants from the Schedule 5 list of narcotic substances. This means that leaves, stems, branches, bark, fibre, roots, and seeds or seed extracts containing less than 0.2% THC will no longer be considered narcotic substances. This, however, does not include shoots and flowers which may have a higher THC content.

While the upcoming change is currently being drafted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we expect that the regulations will require that all permitted parts and content are to be sourced only from authorized producers such as medical practitioners, universities, community-based enterprises, and government organizations tasked with researching cannabis and hemp.

FDA secretary-general Paisal Dunkhum stated that those that have received permission to grow cannabis or hemp will be allowed to grow the plants with no limit to the number of plants that can be grown.

No announcements have been made so far regarding when this update will take effect. We will continue to monitor the development and provide updates when available.