Pattaya and the Thailand Youth Institute are teaming up to keep city schools free of marijuana, tobacco and vaping.
Deputy Mayor Thitiphan Petchtrakul on Aug. 18 announced the Pattaya Safe Schools campaign, which aims to reduce the number of new smokers, whether they are puffing cigarettes, sucking on electronic cigarettes or smoking grass.
In Thailand, e-cigarettes are illegal. Pot is legal and minors are banned from buying regular cigarettes. But rules never seem to matter, especially when they aren’t enforced.
Youth Institute Secretary Patcharapat Prajublarb said vaping is common among Thai teens 13-18 and cannabis was legalized before the government passed laws to control its sale and recreational use.
In the absence of such laws, Pattaya already declared its 11 public school campuses “cannabis-free zones”. Now the city wants to expand that initiative to cut the number of youthful smokers of any substance, tobacco, marijuana or nicotine.
Thitiphan said all school must work continuously to prevent anyone – staff or students – from smoking. Schools also must regularly teach lessons on the dangers of tobacco and e-cigarettes.
Schools also were told to offer stop-smoking programs or referrals for students who want to quit and create student networks to use positive peer pressure against smoking weed or tobacco, or vaping.
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