Four years ago, Thailand became the Weed Wonderland of the East. You couldn’t turn a corner in Bangkok or Pattaya without seeing a big green neon cannabis leaf. In Southeast Asia, which is notorious for having some of the world’s harshest drug laws, it was a first. Previously, Thailand had the largest incarcerated population in the region, of which 80% of inmates were convicted of drug offenses. The Land of Smiles regularly imposed the death penalty for narcotics offences, with inmates marching through Bangkok’s Bangkwan prison, chains rattling, to face the firing squad.
But on 9 June 2022, there was a sudden change in course. The Bhumjaithai Party (BJT), led by construction tycoon Anutin Charnvirakul, campaigned on a platform of cannabis reform to win over struggling farmers in the impoverished northeast in the 2019 elections. Three years later, BJT followed through on its promise. Cannabis was removed from the narcotics blacklist, and thousands of prisoners were released that very day.
Technically, it wasn’t legalisation, since there were no laws to regulate this new industry – cannabis had just simply been descheduled, with no regulatory system set up to replace its control. Nevertheless, it was treated as such: ‘ganjapreneurs’ set up shop in sleek dispensaries and street stalls alike. There was even a cannabis shop in the Legend Siam cultural theme park. Internationally, there were hopes that Thailand would be the Colorado of the East, triggering a domino effect of reform.
But the debate remains far from settled. The government is now rolling back the cannabis free-for-all and officially moving towards medical access only – not a complete ban, but ignoring the fact most people use cannabis recreationally rather than out of medical need.
So what exactly went wrong?
Thai cannabis prohibition
Although marijuana has been part of Thai culture for millennia – likely introduced through trade with India sometime in the 6th century – a series of prohibitions enacted in the 20th Century under pressure from foreign governments (principally the United States) has left many Thais under the impression it is a dangerous, maddening intoxicant. This belief is reinforced by the fact most dispensaries cater to farang (foreigners). The sudden liberalisation may have been too much, too soon.
The headlines in the Thai press began telling terrifying tales: a young man crashed an ambulance he’d been joyriding under the influence, another man had apparently the first fatal “marijuana overdose” in recorded history, and a photo of a group of children sharing a bong on Pattaya beach provoked scandal.
Long-time cannabis advocate Chokwan ‘Kitty’ Chopaka believes the moral panic resulted from a failure to communicate between the 420-friendly segment of society, and the general public.
“Before the legalisation, because it was illegal, everyone was very happy to share information to promote it in a better way,” she told TalkingDrugs.
“But now everyone’s more focused on selling… And that then limits the conversation to be only cannabis users themselves and not others [sharing], what they are okay with and what they are not okay with,” she explained. “That contributes to the stigma because it doesn’t involve the general public.”
There was international pressure as well. The freewheeling Thai cannabis industry became a source for countries still under prohibition, such as Britain, where hundreds of young British tourists were caught at Heathrow with suitcases stuffed with cannabis. Thailand becoming a source of international cannabis smuggling is quickly becoming a matter of national embarrassment.
Meanwhile, tragedy struck.
Changing political support
In October 2022, an ex-cop gunned down 36 people – including 24 preschoolers – before turning the firearm on himself in Nong Bua Lamphu province. He’d previously been dismissed from duty after being busted with methamphetamine. In response, then-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha made drug suppression an urgent national agenda, urging police to carry out random drug checks and set up checkpoints to catch traffickers. But no meth was found in the autopsy.
“There’s been a push for [owners of] one yaba [methamphetamine] pill to go straight to jail,” Kitty continued.
“I thought we went past that: it’s a health issue [rather than law-and-order], that type of thing.”
This highly mediatised case led calls for a stronger crackdown on drugs and its consumers; among those was the exiled ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra. A media mogul turned politician, Thaksin oversaw a brutal anti-drug campaign in the early 2000s in which 2,500 people were extrajudicially executed, most of whom turned out to be innocent, before he was overthrown by the military. After the 2024 elections, his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra assumed the premiership as leader of the Pheu Thai Party (PTP), a front for her father.
The PTP, unsurprisingly, promised to revive prohibition, but a power-sharing arrangement with the BJT – a relatively small, but influential party back then – held them back. Then last year, a brief border war with Cambodia kicked off a political crisis. The Shinawatra clan enjoyed close relations with another dynasty: the family of Hun Sen, Cambodia’s current autocratic president who, along with his sons, runs the nation as a de-facto monarchy. A leaked phone call revealed Paetongtarn speaking to Hun Sen in overly-familial terms, even calling him “uncle,” while soldiers traded gunfire over the border.
The BJT quit the coalition in protest, and to punish them, the PTP’s health minister Somsak Thepsutin signed a decree banning any cannabis sales without a doctor’s prescription in June 2025. But the PTP’s power wouldn’t last long. Paetongtarn was booted from office for fraternising with the enemy, and the BJT’s Anutin Charnvirakul became prime minister.
Once upon a time, cannabis reform was Anutin’s flagship policy.
“The key phrase there is once upon a time: things change, politics change,” said Kitty.
“Policy-wise, the movement [of cannabis reform] will be done within the health ministries and departments themselves,” she added, rather than further above.
Reality on the ground
In practice, however, not much has changed under new management.
“Possession is not an issue. You are able to possess as much as you like… you can grow your own cannabis. You can travel with it. All of that is still very much legal.”
Officials claim that 85% of cannabis vendors opened since 2022 have closed because of the new rules, but Kitty says this data is not very precise since the industry was not very well-regulated, although now there’s an online registry of licensed vendors.
The shops that wish to remain in business must adopt a medical model, at least formally.
“If you are to access [cannabis] by shop, you will need to have a prescription, which now most shops will be able to provide for you, or they will be able to somehow have that appear,” Kitty said.
Larger dispensaries backed by corporate money can afford their own in-house doctors, leading many, including Kitty, to speculate the tighter restrictions are simply a smokescreen for oligarchs to take the market for themselves.
It seems that Thai cannabis is moving towards a legal grey area, which may function similarly to the Thai sex work industry. Officially, the world’s oldest profession is forbidden in Thailand, but you wouldn’t know it walking down Soi Cowboy, Bangkok’s red light district lined with scantily clad women and go-go bars.
“With the law changes and how they’re trying to make it stricter and make it seem more like it’s medicine and not really accepting there’s other uses beyond that, that’ll just push it the same way as the sex industry or massage parlours,” Kitty explained, adding that loopholes can always be found.
“Did you know those big established massage parlours actually have licenses and they are operating within the law? Each room actually needs to have a viewing window. The ladies just put up curtains.”
So while Thailand isn’t yet going back to the bad old days of Thaksin’s murderous drug war, it’s rather clumsily trying to find the right balance of regulation and control – a path that avoids unwanted international scrutiny, without totally banning cannabis.
