Haze of confusion in Thailand as government flips on cannabis law

2 comments

1. This is too bad. The laisse faire situation there was so wonderful — you could sit on the street smoking a j and getting a foot massage at the same time in true Thai why-not style.

2. This sounds way worse than it will probably end up being:

   > The new rules make it mandatory for any retail cannabis purchase to require a prescription from a medical professional.

   > The details of how the new rules will work in practice, and the guidelines for issuing prescriptions, are still being finalised. Recent reports suggest shops may have to register with the government as clinics.

   So in practice you will have to pay a few bath for a prescription to a “cannabis medical professional” before your purchase, if they even bother to actually enforce much of it.

   The registering shops, as yet to be defined “clinics”, most likely has to do with getting a better grip on all the tax evasion on the weed that’s currently extremely common.

   To a degree I can even understand the governments urge to get the market somewhat regulated.

   Right now the situation there is *crazy*, there’s a gold-rush kind of vibe going on with weed shops popping up like mushrooms, some of them the size of phone booths.

   Imho this is an unsustainable situation longterm just from a supply&demand dimenstion: Many of the currently existing shops will die out because there’s too much money being invested into farms and shops.

   Domestic demand, even with Thailands massive tourism industry, can’t keep up with all the supply being generated, driving prices down, decreasing overall profitability, and so on, resulting in a very buyers market.

   I doubt they will ever be able to put that recreational weed ghost back into the bottle, at least the way it used to be. Way too late for that and it all just fits too well:
   Like an Asian Jamaica, but unlike actual Jamaica with legal weed, the partying has Amsterdam vibes during its wildest times, all combined with unbelievably welcoming/kind people and interesting history/culture.

Comments are closed.