Blunt truth: Media keep getting it wrong on Thai cannabis legalization

On Thursday, when Rittipong “Beer” Dachkul became Highland Cafe’s first customer to buy potent weed, a reporter covering the moment saw things very differently.

After observing Rittpong’s purchase, Nicolas Kumanoff intoned gravely in a Deutsche Welle report, “The cannabis on sale is low-potency.” That would be news to not only Rittipong, who walked out with a potent indica strain called LSD-25, but to the man who sold it to him over the counter.

“Absolutely not, hahaha,” Highland cofounder Arun Avery said. “Most were high-THC strains grown here by the locals. The potency checked out well, so it must be because people have been misinformed and just assumed. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, and it needs to be cleared up.”

With that falsehood, Kumanoff joined the ranks of reporters who have been consistently wrong about Thailand’s…