About-face on marijuana legalization leaves Thai pot lovers with hazy future

BANGKOK — Perhaps the path to legal marijuana in a country with a global reputation for the quality and potency of its local weed was never destined to be a smooth toke.

Two years after Thailand’s military-led government decriminalized cannabis, the country’s elected civilian prime minister abruptly announced last week that he wants to end legalized recreational use by the end of the year. That would close thousands of licensed weed shops and impose punishments on anyone involved with marijuana unless for medical use.

Thailand was the first Asian nation to legalize cannabis for medicinal use in 2022. Critics say the market has virtually no regulation and are concerned about drug abuse and crime rates.

The sudden reversal threatens the popularity and survival of a squabbling coalition government elected in May 2023 under Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and his influential Pheu Thai (For Thais) Party.

“We’re all doing everything by the book, but then suddenly the book is going to change,” Rattapon Sanrak, owner of Bangkok-based dispensary Highland Cafe, told Bloomberg News after the prime minister’s announcement. “We’re gearing up to protest and preparing to file lawsuits in the event it happens.” 

The legalization drive excited marijuana advocates and connoisseurs the world over, but the shift isn’t a total surprise. Key members of the Srettha governing coalition are staunchly anti-marijuana, but some powerful parties in the alliance favor regulated recreational use and production, similar to alcohol or tobacco, to boost Thailand’s struggling economy.

Cannabis is characterized as a “controlled herb” with no outright ban on its recreational use.

The prime minister is proposing to reclassify cannabis as a category 5 narcotic, illegal to “produce, sell, import, export, or possess.”

Outraged cannabis investors, farmers, sellers and consumers said illegalizing weed would destroy a rapidly expanding, multimillion-dollar industry that attracts international tourists seeking to sample the most expensive buds.

Cannabis supporters held small rallies Thursday at the Ministry of Public Health and tourist-packed Phuket Provincial Public Health Office to demand that the health minister prove that recreational cannabis is a greater public health risk than alcohol and tobacco, both of which are legal in Thailand.

The Cannabis Future Network said it would rally supporters to protest outside the health ministry until proof appeared.

“Just search on the internet, and you will find there has been no research which shows cannabis has a serious negative impact on mental health,” said Cannabis Future Network Secretary-General Prasitchai Nunual. “On the other hand, there are countless studies which demonstrate the health benefits of cannabis, which are sufficient to conclude that cannabis plants have medicinal properties.”

“The government has suddenly said that cannabis will be placed back in the narcotic list, making it illegal again and making millions of people criminals overnight,” Assadet Nongsang, a pro-cannabis activist, told The Phuket Express news.

Long legacy

For centuries, cannabis sativa has been considered a traditional medicine in Thailand. After decriminalization, its properties were taught in several universities’ government-backed schools of conventional medicine.

Cannabis is allowed for anyone 18 or older and not pregnant, but smoking in public can result in a fine.

Despite heading a conservative government installed by a military junta, former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha removed cannabis from the narcotics code in 2021, ending a ban imposed in 1935. Initially, the plant became legal for medical use only, but those restraints were dropped in 2022, effectively allowing recreational use.

Marijuana’s hazy legal status means no fines or punishment for possession and use. Sales, production and other aspects are licensed.

Mr. Prayuth’s pro-legalization health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, told Thais they could earn fortunes by growing marijuana at home or on farms. He handed out live plants to eager recipients. Mr. Anutin’s push to legalize cannabis proved a popular campaign issue for his Bhumjaithai (Proud To Be Thai) Party in the 2019 elections.

Mr. Anutin, now a powerful interior minister and a deputy prime minister in the coalition government, said an official study and panel discussions are needed before marijuana’s legal status changes.

Many supporters of Mr. Srettha’s PTP fear cannabis is distorting the minds of Thai teenagers who go online to buy from farms that make deliveries.

Pro-cannabis campaigners, meanwhile, want regulations ensuring recreational weed is not contaminated with insecticide or mold.

Various coalition factions offered two draft bills to parliament, but the PTP wants an agreement on a fresh draft by December.

“Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin may mean well in attempting to re-list cannabis as a narcotic, but his aim only attests to his mediocre knowledge about the plant and the dilemma facing the country,” the Bangkok Post said in an editorial.

Mr. Srettha is widely considered a pliant proxy for convicted and currently paroled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist whose administration unleashed a “war on drugs” in 2003 that killed more than 2,500 people in uninvestigated circumstances and was one of the reasons coup leaders cited for toppling him in 2014.

Mr. Thaksin is helping Mr. Srettha and the PTP increase power, but the party’s anti-cannabis stance is dividing the governing coalition that took power last year after a decade of military-dominated government.

Critics say the prime minister’s demand that only medical cannabis be permitted could spawn a corrupt black market. They charge that the country’s powerful alcohol industry lobby opposed legal marijuana as a potential competitor.

The lack of regulations, meanwhile, has created an uneven market for Thais trying to legally grow and sell marijuana, resulting in an oversupply and low prices.

Marijuana with high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, which produces the drug’s effect, sells for $2 to $25 per gram, often for the same strain and strength.

U.S. and other foreign investors have opened legal shops with Thai partners. One is Cookies, based in San Francisco, which has an upmarket showroom on the lane behind the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok.