Thailand’s cannabis community is bracing for a new regulation that could see the use of the plant permitted for medical use only.
In June 2022, Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration officially removed cannabis from its list of illegal narcotics, making possession, cultivation, distribution, consumption, and sales of cannabis all legal. Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalize cannabis, which, to the alarm of Thai conservatives, has since led to a spike in recreational use from locals and tourists, and the opening of over 10,700 licensed dispensaries selling cannabis and extractions of the plant nationwide.
The Pheu Thai party, which heads the current coalition government in Thailand, has long campaigned against the recreational use of cannabis. Since the drug’s decriminalization, Pheu Thai have called for the plant to be restricted to medical use only, a promise that it took to the 2023 general election campaign.
But in May, Thailand’s Health Minister Somsak Chungsaman announced a new regulation is set to be implemented that will only allow cannabis to be used for medical purposes and not recreationally.
Under the proposed new regulation, dispensaries will be allowed to sell cannabis to other licensed shops or to customers with a prescription from a medical professional, including doctors who practice Thai traditional medicine. The amount sold will be limited to only 30 days of use, according to the Health Ministry.
Chokwan “Kitty” Chopaka, is a cannabis legalization activist so prominent in Thailand she has been referred to as the “Queen of Cannabis.” She says the new medical bill could see a 90 percent drop in the number of licensed cannabis shops in Thailand.
“I understand what the government is doing, I don’t agree with it,” Kitty told The Diplomat. “I feel the ones that are going to be left are the bigger shops, who actually have that war chest and they will service the tourists, and the locals will probably grow their own, because getting a doctor’s note is going to be too much of an issue.”
Three years ago, when cannabis became legalized, millions of people in Thailand registered with the Thai government to grow cannabis.
Decriminalization led to the creation of a new industry Thailand. In a matter of months, thousands of dispensaries were established in Thailand’s cities, from small pop-up shops to brand new brands selling cannabis, marijuana-infused gummies, and other related products.
The decriminalization was led by the conservative Bhumjaithai Party, a member of the government’s ruling coalition. The government had hoped that cannabis would become a cash crop for Thailand, boosting its tourism and agriculture sectors. In 2022, the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce estimated the sector could be worth $1.2 billion annually by 2025.
But competition has been fierce for businesses trying to benefit from selling cannabis.
Kitty knows this experience first-hand.
In February 2022, she opened her store, Chopaka, on Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Road, selling terpene marshmallow, gummy sweets, and other cannabis accessories. Four months later, when cannabis was decriminalized, she began stocking cannabis and marijuana products.
For the first few weeks after cannabis was de-listed as a narcotic, business boomed.
“We were doing extremely well,” Kitty said, adding that the store was netting almost 1 million baht ($30,583) per day. “At that time, there will still a very limited supply. There weren’t that many people who were growing. There was not that many who actually did it. It was a big buzz with the locals and foreigners and those who lived in nearby countries.”
But the downturn came about six months later. Kitty said sales declined due to a glut of supply, which drove down prices, as well as a proliferation of unlicensed sellers, and other businesses selling products that were illegal.
Under existing Thai laws, the legal level for recreational use of cannabis products cannot exceed 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive compound in cannabis.
“By December, the bubble burst,” Kitty said. “We were limited to only selling what was legal. We were quite strict with our selling. It got to a point where the supply becomes more than the demand. And the demand changed from just flowers, but [customers asking] can I have other ways of using it? So the user changed too,” she added, referring to the fact that many customers wanted cannabis that was above the legal threshold.
Kitty decided to shut her shop in February of this year, three years after opening. She said Chopaka had “started going into the red” at the end of 2024.
Although there are over 10,000 licensed dispensaries in Thailand, the number of illegal sellers means the real number of vendors selling cannabis is likely higher.
For licensed dispensaries, that means less business.
Tucked on the corner of Soi 11 and Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok is Amsterdam Café, a fifth-floor rooftop lounge which sells cannabis products, food, and drinks.
Bruce Giovani, the French national who owns the Amsterdam Café, said that his business is still operating, but admits he’s seen a decline in sales.
“If new people were to invest in cannabis to grow in Thailand, I would tell them it’s too late. Many people have failed,” he said. “Everyone was excited the first year, but sales have gone down [since]. The tourists are less, and the black market is getting bigger,” he added.
Giovani believes the cannabis industry is about to see a U-turn, at least for now, given the recent announcement from the health minister.
“We are on the way to the medical way in Thailand,” he said. “Our dispensary is already licensed for selling cannabis for medical [purposes]. The big shops will stay. The street trucks will disappear, but in six months, maybe they’ll come back,” he added.
One of the problems with Thailand’s approach to legalization is that it took place before a comprehensive law governing cannabis use was in place. This resulted in a sharp rise in the recreational use and illegal distribution of the drug. But a rise in the smuggling of cannabis to other countries is another reason government official are keen to control the plant and its use.
In the last year, Thai airport authorities have intercepted over 800 cannabis smugglers attempting to take the cannabis outside of the country. Marijuana that has been smuggled out of Thailand has also reached several countries in Asia and Europe.
In recent months the issue has hit the headlines, with several British nationals separately caught in the act of smuggling cannabis products out of Thailand.
Gloria Lai, Asia regional director for the International Drug Policy Consortium, says the decision for a new regulation is a reaction to the high-profile smuggling incidents.
“The health minister’s announcement appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to concerns about people smuggling cannabis out of Thailand, and it is questionable whether the proposal to restrict the buying and selling of cannabis to by medical prescription only will solve that concern,” she told The Diplomat.
The medical regulation, should it come into force, is seen as a temporary measure. Thai lawmakers have been working on a so-called Cannabis Act, which aims to cover all aspects of controlling the plant for use in Thailand. But ministers say that the new law is two years away.
“Given the proposal of legislation to regulate cannabis in a more comprehensive manner, it seems more useful to initiate inclusive consultations on those proposals – while allowing reasonable timeframes for inputs from communities impacted by proposed cannabis regulations – rather than rapidly introducing new rules that risk causing greater confusion,” Lai added.
In the meantime, Kitty says that she is still fighting against the introduction of rules banning recreational cannabis use. On Monday, she and her fellow activists in the Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future network, protested against the health minister’s announcement and filed an official complaint.
She believes that the better enforcement of current laws would improve the industry and those working within it.
“It is an experiment that has gone haywire? No. We want the enforcement of the current regulation, it should help mitigate a lot of the issues that is currently happening,” she said. “But we also need to work on the cannabis act. Because without that we won’t have a proper structure of how we will regulate and control cannabis in the coming future.”