Education Minister Trinuch Thienthong reiterated on Wednesday that ganja is banned in all schools following reports that students sneaked some in to smoke while another student coolly carried a cannabis drink.
rinunch said she signed an Education Ministry directive on June 16 to ban ganja in schools and the directive has already taken effect after being published in the Royal Gazette on Monday.
She was referring to two incidents reported by social media about ganja use and abuse by students.
On Monday, a female paediatrist, Suteera Uapairojkij, posted on her Facebook wall that she had learned about ganja use in a school from a teacher.
Suteera quoted the unnamed teacher of the unidentified school as saying that during his long years of teaching, he had “never experienced anything like what he recently encountered”.
According to Suteera, the teacher found a student carrying a cannabis drink in a vacuum flask to school one morning.
Then at noon, secondary school students locked their classroom door to smoke marijuana.
Suteera quoted the teacher as saying that when another teacher entered the room to stop them, a boy threatened to assault the teacher. When the school summoned the parents of the boy, it found they did not prohibit their son from smoking ganga.
Suteera said the school then advised the parents to send the boy for treatment for marijuana addiction.
The education minister said all schools must launch awareness campaigns among parents and students about the negative impacts of marijuana and hemp.
“I would like to emphasise here that smoking ganja or eating food containing cannabis ingredients is prohibited in schools,” Trinuch said.
“There is only one exemption – medical use as prescribed by doctors.”
She said the Education Ministry would seek the Interior Ministry’s help to enforce the ban.
The ministry will also seek cooperation from food and drink shops near schools not to sell food or drinks with cannabis, she added.
