Dispensaries follow tourism’s return to weed-wary Chinatown

Next to the Shanghai Mansion hotel, where people listen to loud Ed Sheeran covers at one end of busy Yaowarat Road, a much quieter alley leads to two weed shops illuminated by Chinese lanterns. From one called Danq, blazed tourists walk out after smoking joints and playing video games.

Back on Yaowarat, a new dispensary called Remedy’s looks out of place between a dilapidated gold shop and neighborhood ice-cream spot. Passing tourists marvel at the garish purple glow marking it as a foreign anomaly in slow-to-change Chinatown. A group of Chinese travelers barreling by stops to take a look and, after a pause, enters.

These recently opened shops are the exception, however. Thailand’s booming weed culture hasn’t hit Chinatown like it has other neighborhoods. But doors are…