E-ganja is not the same as e-cigarette
Thailand just legalized the growing and trading of marijuana products. However, the country did not legalize the recreational use of marijuana. It now emerges that the debate around legalizing marijuana in the country could have an unintended outcome. It created a market that is now being explored by some unscrupulous business people who are repurposing the e-cigarette technology for marijuana use.
Traditionally youth wanting to experiment with smoking in the country would go for the good old bongs. This is a mixture of tobacco in a smoking pipe. This is not the case with modern affluent youth with some loose change to spend.
Instead of smoking marijuana and risk being found out because of the smell, many youths from rich families in the country are now opting to spend 3,000 baht online to get their hands on an e-ganja. This is simply cannabis oil and some flavoring products in an e-cigarette.
According to Min, a 22-year-old Chiang Mai resident, this e-ganja has become very popular with wealthy youth excited about the legalization of marijuana and who want to try it. She says that smoking marijuana leaves or flowers put off this group of youth because of the smell. The e-ganja thus provides the perfect product they can use without ever being discovered.
The e-ganja is also loved for the fact that one can smoke a single tube for up to three weeks. This makes it easy for youth who want to try it to only buy one tube and share it with friends.
Min further claims that because the gadget is smokeless even young businessmen are now using it as a recreational drug of choice. it can be used almost anywhere without the user being detected. Furthermore, by being smokeless, not many people will ever know the person is hooked on marijuana.
Although the e-ganja has gained popularity in the country it is against the law. Recreational use of marijuana is still illegal in the country. In fact, to make sure that people don’t start smoking the marijuana plants they grow the ministry of public health recently announced that the smell or smock of marijuana in public will be treated as a public nuisance and the culprits will be dealt with by law.
Many less affluent youths who also want to experiment with marijuana still mix their ground marijuana with tobacco and smoke via the bongs. This method is still risky and can land one in prison as smoking marijuana is still illegal in the country. This is perhaps the reason why many wealthy youths are dumping the bong in drives for the clean, less detectable e-ganja.
