High season is coming to Thailand. As November approaches, the country gears up to welcome peak tourist arrivals that last well into February. But this year, the Southeast Asian country is anticipating a different kind of “high.”
Since its highly anticipated cannabis legalization in June, Thailand is steadily morphing into what many are labeling the “Amsterdam of Asia.” The landmark liberalization, paired with the country’s post-COVID reopening, has seen cannabis businesses sprout across the country, eager to join the green rush.
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Among them is Amitta Chaophetdee, a reggae singer known by her stage name Bambi420 and the co-owner of Wichai Paipar Shop, a vibey joint in Pattaya city. Lit in a cool purple glow, Amitta’s customers take their pick from the shop’s assortment of cannabis offerings before reclining on a couch or playing a stoned game of pool.
Since opening the shop in August, Amitta says that they have amassed a loyal crowd, along with a growing stream of brands and weed wholesalers seeking partnerships.
“In June, we woke up with a dream come true,” Amitta told VICE World News this week. “It made selling and buying cannabis more smooth, and nobody disturbed [us].”
Now, almost five months on, that initial buzz surrounding the legalization has settled. But the same can’t be said for cannabis’ status in Thailand; to this day, robust regulation on the plant remains up in the air.
After years of anticipation, cannabis was fully legalized in Thailand on June 9, making international headlines and setting Thailand apart as the first to do so in Asia, a region known for its hardline drug stance. But in the months since, Thailand has seen a wave of panic amid news reports of cannabis-related hospitalizations and alleged “overdoses,” with a growing chorus of opponents—from politicians to medical professionals—criticizing legislators for the plant’s unchecked proliferation and calling for its re-criminalization.
With Thailand’s next general election tentatively scheduled for May, observers say that the politicization of cannabis is only set to intensify—not least since this month’s deadly mass shooting that politicians were quick to associate with drug use.
Sitting in the middle of this game of political football, among those most affected, are small weed-based business owners who have jumped into the industry with their personal savings.
“If they set the rules, we’ll follow,” said Amitta, one of four cannabis shop owners in Thailand VICE World News spoke with to find out how they’re coping with regulatory uncertainty. “We will be waiting for the final decision from them. It’s still confusing.”
All this waiting has proven to be unsettling for most business owners, even as they try to forge on with optimism into the high tourism season. But even if most don’t foresee a complete U-turn on legalization, the fact that regulations are still forthcoming makes for an uneasy venture.
“I feel very nervous that they will change the law,” Chet Chuthong, owner of cannabis shop Kush House Phuket, told VICE World News. “I feel like if [cannabis] is already legalized, it’s not easy to make it illegal again. But they will be more strict.”
Thailand first legalized cannabis for medical use in December 2018, and it didn’t take long before discussions turned to opening the industry to recreational use. Spearheading the push to liberalize cannabis was the Bhumjaithai Party, which during the 2019 general election campaigned on a cannabis-friendly platform, securing 10.33 percent of the vote to become the second-largest party in Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s ruling military-aligned coalition.
Eager to make good on their campaign promise, Minister of Health Anutin Charnvirakul of Bhumjaithai hyped the plant as a potential multibillion-dollar cash crop to ease Thailand out of the pandemic, even pledging to hand out one million free cannabis plants for home growers. When June 9 rolled around, all parts of the cannabis plant were removed from the country’s narcotics list—though cannabis extracts containing more than 0.2% THC (its main psychoactive compound) remained illegal.
Shortly before legalization, authorities also warned that smoking a joint in public could land an offender with a public nuisance charge—though the act is not governed specifically by cannabis regulations, which remained conspicuously missing.
But while stoners celebrated as they purchased the country’s first legally obtained cannabis buds, it would only be a matter of days before a wave of panic arrived. Less than a week later, on June 14, Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said that four people, including teenagers, had been hospitalized after consuming cannabis, in what he initially claimed were “overdoses.”
But as criticism mounted over a lack of regulation and the easy accessibility of cannabis, the government issued an emergency order in mid-June addressing the most glaring loopholes in the cannabis free-for-all, banning sales to anyone under 20, pregnant, or breastfeeding.
These piecemeal efforts did not stop the moral panic from boiling over. Over the next couple of months, reports emerged of minors apparently misusing weed, with local news stories of students secretly getting high in school and selling cannabis products to peers. In August, to the horror of parents around the country, a three-year-old was reportedly taken to hospital after unknowingly consuming a weed brownie.
Beyond last-minute rules cobbled together, even now there remain no cannabis laws that parallel those for alcohol or tobacco governing advertising, sales, or penalties for dangerous behavior like drunk driving. Concerned about public health within this regulatory vacuum, more than 1,000 doctors and dozens of local medical organizations have been petitioning since July for the legalization to be rolled back.
Smith Srisont, head of Thailand’s Forensic Physician Association and one of the medical experts spearheading the campaign, said he doesn’t oppose recreational cannabis use, but wants the government to ensure that minors don’t have easy access to the drug. The problem, he suggested, was that legislators jumped the gun.
“I think we can use cannabis more freely than any country in the world. In Thailand, they let cannabis free before they had laws to regulate it,” he told VICE World News. “It’s very bad that we let cannabis free before regulations. If we waited for regulations first before [legalizing it], that would’ve been alright.”
The Cannabis and Hemp Bill, which passed its first reading on June 8, a day before legalization, was meant to fill this gap. According to details released by authorities before the bill went into its second reading in September, there would be a ban on selling or advertising cannabis products online, and only Thai nationals 20 years old and above would be able to grow cannabis for commercial purposes. It also reaffirmed the restriction of sales to those below 20, pregnant, or breastfeeding.
“At the end of the day, we woke up and realized—wait a minute—there are no regulations at all about age restriction, nothing on who can sell, who can’t sell… And now things are falling apart.”
However, the bill has since stalled in parliament, after opponents—most prominently the opposition Pheu Thai Party and coalition partners Democrat Party—voted to have it withdrawn from a parliamentary session in September, claiming that it contained loopholes and did not go far enough to curb recreational use among the public. The bill’s future appears to be anyone’s guess, with the House committee chairman saying that they may not have enough time to discuss it when parliament reconvenes on Nov. 2, while an upcoming election slated for next year threatens to shake up existing parliamentary dynamics.
Voranai Vanijaka, a journalist-turned-politician and political analyst, told VICE World News that the government was hasty in freeing cannabis from the narcotics list, and agreed that regulation should have been cemented first.
“Bhumjaithai said you can grow it, you can cook it, you can eat it, you can sell it, everybody will be rich because of it,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we woke up and realized—wait a minute—there are no regulations at all about age restriction, nothing on who can sell, who can’t sell, so on and so forth. And now things are falling apart.”
“The first bill should not have been passed in the way that it was. We should have had the regulations completed along with the bills.”
Earlier this month, the Pheu Thai Party filed a petition to the Election Commission for Bhumjaithai to be disbanded for its handling of cannabis’ legalization, which it called a half-baked policy to score voter points. The call, which was retracted a day later, is just one way the debate over cannabis has intensified amid escalating tensions ahead of election season.
Voranai says that the issue, already a prominent topic of public debate, will become even more politicized as next year’s election draws near.
“[The cannabis bill is] being stalled [by opposition groups] because it’s a really useful political tool for campaigning in the next election,” he said. “They are working on the regulations, but politics right now is quite unstable. Nobody knows when the prime minister is going to dissolve the parliament for the next election.”
Complicating matters further are the horrific events of recent weeks. On Oct. 6, the nation reeled after a lone former cop attacked a pre-school with an automatic weapon and a knife, killing 37—the majority of whom were children—in Thailand’s world’s worst mass killing in recent history. In the wake of the attack, the killer’s struggle with meth addiction became the focus of political and media narratives, sparking a national debate around the country’s drug and firearms problem.
Since then, the public sentiment towards cannabis has also swayed, said Voranai, amid recent reports of drug busts and similar attacks initiated by drug users.
“Obviously, the drug that [the massacre] is linked to is not cannabis. But in the sentiment of the people, drugs are drugs. It’s emotional,” he said. “So with all this and drugs once again becoming the ultimate evil, cannabis is also getting pulled into this.”
A representative from the Ministry of Health initially responded to VICE World News’ request for an interview but did not give confirmation on subsequent follow-ups.
As the debate thickens about the future of the cannabis industry, some have decided they’d rather wait for this regulatory uncertainty to be resolved before investing further. Organizers of the Pan Buriram festival, one of the country’s biggest cannabis festivals originally set to take place in November, postponed the event indefinitely while awaiting clarity. Investors keen on building cannabis businesses have also called on the government to clarify its laws while delaying their plans to venture into the industry.
Others, however, are not losing sleep over politics. Kitty Chopaka, a longtime weed advocate and the owner of a weed dispensary in Bangkok, is going ahead with a cannabis fair she’s planning for January, welcoming prospective employers and employees looking to work in the industry. She described the unregulated cannabis scene in Thailand as a “wild wild west,” where anyone with enough cash to pour into the industry can see a fast return on their investment.
“As much as they are going to argue about it in parliament or outside of parliament, between political parties, money is still going to be made,” she told VICE World News.
With Thailand’s cannabis industry expected to be worth $1.2 billion by 2025, people are flocking in before the dust has even settled on the plant’s legal status. Among them are foreign investors looking to claim a stake in the burgeoning scene, including a group of Malaysian businessmen planning to build a one-stop cannabis entertainment center in Bangkok. Just one day after legalization in June, PlookGanja, a government app that offers registration for aspiring cannabis growers, crashed after receiving over nine million applications from people wanting to grow their own cannabis.
Carl K. Linn, a policy analyst who runs the newsletter Cannabis in Thailand, says that the scene has “absolutely exploded” since legalization, with economic opportunities overshadowing the regulatory uncertainty.
“The money to be made right now is quieting people’s worries about the risk they may be setting themselves up for in the future,” he told VICE World News. “The amount of money that these places are making is incredible… And it’s not even high season.”
On the ground, cannabis shop owners are experiencing firsthand just how lucrative the business can be. When he first opened LA CHOZA in Pattaya, Owe Laxson was managing it alone. Now he has 11 employees and hasn’t taken a day off work since. Laxson told VICE World News that he’s “not at all” concerned about new restrictions.
“I’m hundred percent sure that [cannabis] is not going to be banned again,” he said. “Everything has to do with money. The country is making good money from this.”
At the Budtender Ganja Dispensary in Pattaya, daily revenues range between 50,000 baht ($1,300) to 100,000 baht ($2,700), owners Pump Chittira and Fah Williamson told VICE World News. Fah says they are “trying to make as much as [they] can with this,” but unlike Laxson, their business decisions have been overshadowed by regulatory uncertainty and the fear of a potential crackdown.
“Definitely we’re scared to move forward, to think about opening other branches because we don’t want to put in the money and then suddenly they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re not okay with this, you’ll have to shut everything down,’” said Fah. “[Regulations] will definitely make all the parties more relaxed about it.”
“The fact [is] that they have made it legal and didn’t do it right at the beginning, and now everything’s quite messy. They’re trying to make it [illegal] again, which is honestly a political game. And it’s not right for our community.”
That political game may now be turning against Bhumjaithai, which finds itself caught between industry stakeholders and political opponents. But even as the plant potentially outlives its political expediency for the party, industry insiders say it has already passed the point of no return, as a green rush washes over the country.
“It’s politics and we can’t really get away from it. But this is above politics, I believe,” Kitty said. “The floodgate has been opened. That gate has been blown up. The dam is crumbling. The water is going to go through. There is no way that is ever going to come back.”
