Cannabis in Thailand is now neither legal nor against the law
Smoking pot can be a crime but is usually without a victim to make a complaint.
At the last minute, Thailand has delayed for a month or two the ministerial edict that customers will need a doctor’s prescription to buy cannabis. Weed cafes are also given a breather for now, although some smaller ones have already closed as they are not fully registered. The police are likely to ignore most cannabis smokers for now on the grounds that the drug has not yet been recriminalized but is a controlled herb. So the enforcement, if any, will rest with the greatly underfunded food and drugs administration.
Even when the latest regulations do come into force, maybe in August, suck it and see will still be the norm. Who exactly qualifies as a doctor is debatable but apparently includes herbalists and even acupuncturists as well as traditional medics. An overseas doctor’s report is also acceptable. Many so-called dispensaries, according to Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network, will have a doctor available on video link, rather than physically present, to agree a prescription for insomnia or pain in return for immediate payment.
All cannabis sold will need the official Good Agricultural and Collection Practices Certificate issued to make sure farmers are complying with the latest government edict. How this will be monitored is unknown, similar to the equally contentious issue of dispensaries keeping detailed notes of all sales. Computerized records of this sort can easily be faked, not to mention hacked. Online cannabis sales will be banned, but there are currently thousands of purchases via Line with a data base of many thousands of buyers already in existence.
Cannabis retail operator Ake Khattiyadamrong says the basic problem is that previous ministerial regulations in 2022 were not enforced. Teens have found it easy in practice to obtain ganja and even public smoking has usually been tolerated. The instruction to growers that the cannabis could only be sold to qualified medical groups was ignored. There is substantial evidence that dozens of prosecuted holiday Brits have been caught carrying in their suitcases cannabis which had been openly bought at cannabis farms in Thailand. Purchases were mostly made by local mafiosi who then encouraged the luckless vacationers to take the airport risks.
The underlying issue is that smoking cannabis without permission is usually a victimless crime without anyone complaining. Just as some pharmacies sell hospital medicines without the required authorization, or some mama and papa stores sell beer at unauthorized times, so it is difficult to see the enforcement strategies against some cannabis outlets only interested in boosting sales. On an entirely separate front, the Entertainment Venue Act of 1964 has criminalized prostitution in licensed premises for seven decades to very little effect.
The current Pheu Thai-led administration says it is reacting to growing public concern about abuse of cannabis and its negative effects on individuals and on society at large. Assuming there isn’t a change of government or even a military “accident”, significant doubts exist about the effectiveness of ministerial proclamations which, incidentally, do not require approval via the Royal Gazette. As Cannabis Legal Reform says, “Alternatives such as zoning cannabis use would have a much greater chance of achieving progress rather than trying to muddle through once again.”
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