Yo, what’s good, fam? Thailand’s leaders be trippin’ right now. They thought decriminalizin’ cannabis would be all chill, but it ended up causin’ a whole lotta problems. Now they backpedalin’ and tryna fix their mistake with some new laws.
So, here’s the deal. There’s this draft bill that just dropped on Jan. 9, sayin’ that if you get caught smokin’ weed for fun, you gonna be hit with a fat fine of up to 60,000 baht (that’s like $1,709.53). And if you tryna sell that dank herb or its extracts for recreational use, you could be lookin’ at a year in jail or a fine of 100,000 baht (about $2,849.21), or both.
But wait, it gets even worse. The government tryna shut down all the advertisin’ and marketin’ for cannabis flower, extracts, and anything used to smoke up. And if you get caught drivin’ while high, you could be facin’ a fine of up to 20,000 baht ($569.83) or a year in jail.
On top of all that, they gonna tighten up the rules for growin’, sellin’, exportin’, and importin’ cannabis. They tryna fix all the mess they caused by decriminalizin’ in the first place.
The Health Minister, Cholnan Srikaew, say they tryna stop people from usin’ cannabis the wrong way. He say all recreational use is straight-up wrong. So now they puttin’ out this new draft bill that says only medical use is allowed and recreational use is a big no-no.
But let me take you back to how this all started. Thailand was the first Asian country to decriminalize weed. They made it all legal for medical use in 2018, and a couple years later, they started allowin’ the production and sale of medical marijuana, even the flower itself. They even gave out one million free cannabis plants for people to grow at home for medicinal reasons. That’s what’s up!
Then, on June 9, 2022, Thailand decided to take it a step further and took weed off the banned substances list. They said it was cool for restaurants and cafes to sell food and drinks with a lil’ bit of weed in ’em, but only if it had less than 0.2% THC. If it had more THC, you could only get it for medical reasons.
But here’s where things got wild. After they made all these changes, about 6,000 weed shops opened up real quick. It was like a green rush, fam! But then the government realized they messed up and accidentally made recreational use legal. That ain’t what they wanted, so they tryna fix it now.
The new Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, be talkin’ about crackin’ down on drugs and changin’ the cannabis policy. He wanna declare war on drugs and stamp out the drug problems in society. But the cannabis advocates ain’t feelin’ it. They say he promised to talk to the people before makin’ any decisions, but he just went ahead and endorsed the draft bill without listenin’ to anyone.
The Thai Cannabis Future Writing Network be callin’ him out on social media, sayin’ he broke his promise. They wanted a forum to discuss things and hear all the different opinions before puttin’ this bill out there. But homie didn’t follow through. They think his law got a bunch of problems ’cause he ain’t basing it on facts.
So now, they say the deadline for public opinion is Jan. 23, and then the cabinet gonna consider all the feedback before takin’ it to Parliament. Let’s hope they actually listen to the people this time and make some changes. We gotta fight for our rights, fam!
That’s the latest update on Thailand’s cannabis situation. Stay tuned to see what happens next. Peace out!