The Thai government is racing to ban the recreational use of marijuna. It has its work cut out for it.
In February 2024, Thailand’s government is racing to implement one of the Pheu Thai (PT) party’s 2023 election promises: banning the recreational use of marijuana. The question is whether the government would be able to implement the ban effectively, given the profitability of the psychoactive drug and the need to keep the governing coalition together.
Upon assuming office in September 2023, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin put the promise into motion, pointing to the uncontrolled rise of “weed” shops across Thailand. In January, new Pheu Thai Public Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew announced a bill to limit cannabis/ hemp products to medical-related purposes and forbid advertising of those products. Violators would pay heavy fines. Cannabis would be classified as a narcotic when containing an extract of marijuana with a toxicity level of 0.2 milligrams per cent by weight or more. Cannabis farmers must have a licence as would owners and customers of marijuana-related dispensaries. Cholnan even quipped that “smoking pot may require a doctor’s note.”
The impending ban of the legal and profitable drug has produced fears among cannabis growers, traders, and sellers who argue that it is ambiguous and unfairly targets small entrepreneurs. More importantly, Pheu Thai (PT) (151 seats) does not want to lose support from its second largest coalition partner Bhumjai Thai or BJT (71 seats), a party championing marijuana liberalisation. Partly for these reasons, the government continues to seek opinions about the bill. But as shadows loom across Thailand’s marijuana industry, a legal vacuum surrounding the uses of hemp and cannibus has grown. In short, the PT-led government has its work cut out for it.
In February 2024, there were an estimated 6,920 “weed” stores in Thailand. In 2023, Thailand’s Chamber of Commerce estimated that the cannabis industry had for that year generated around 40 billion baht (US$1.1 billion) for Thailand’s economy.
It was only in recent years that Thailand started to relax a decades-old ban on the drug. From 1961 until 2022, marijuana was classified as an illegal narcotic in Thailand. In December 2018, under General Prayuth Chan-ocha’s military junta, cannabis was legalised for medicinal and research purposes. In January, the Royal Thai Army began to allow cannabis cultivation, free from Food and Drug Administration regulations. BJT party leader Anutin Charnvirakul thereupon held a rally in Buriram province, announcing that BJT would promote “free” marijuana cultivation in Buriram and the entire country. BJT then swept all eight MP seats in Buriram in the March 2019 election. The party joined a pro-military government, Anutin became Public Health Minister, and hence sought to further decriminalise marijuana. In April, Newin Chidchob, a close associate of Anutin’s, organised a “Cannabis Expo,” also in Buriram, where he proclaimed that marijuana could be Thailand’s cure for poverty and disease. Newin is a patron of BJT and CEO of Buriram United Football Club. He is not a politician, but is widely known as the puppet-master behind many MPs in Buriram.
Shortly thereafter, Newin’s daughter Chidchanok Chidchob registered with the Ministry of Health to create Buriram Community Enterprise (BCE), Thailand’s first cannabis supplier. The Chidchob family reportedly invested almost a hundred million baht (US$2.8 million) into BCE’s cannabis-hemp extraction factory worth hundreds of millions of baht per year. With BCE enjoying the insiders’ track on Thai cannabis/ hemp production, Thailand’s Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) signed a purchase agreement with a cannabis/ hemp factory in Buriram, paving the way for the BJT’s home province to supply the state with cannabis and hemp infused with medicine.
In December 2020, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs deleted marijuana and hemp from its list of dangerous narcotics. Thereupon, Anutin’s Public Health Ministry revised Category 5 of the Narcotics Act (2020) to exempt parts of cannabis and hemp cultivation. On 9 June 2022, Thailand officially declassified cannabis/ hemp from the country’s list of illegal narcotics, allegedly through the help of a pro-Newin police lieutenant general sitting on the board of Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration committee. Then-Prime Minister Prayuth reportedly agreed to the delisting to ensure BJT’s support in parliamentary no-confidence votes. According to a 2022 poll of rural Thais, marijuana liberalisation increased the popularity of BJT. But the delisting created a legal vacuum of cannabis regulation, indirectly facilitating the recreational use of marijuana which Anutin later claimed never to have supported.
In February 2024, there were an estimated 6,920 “weed” stores in Thailand. In 2023, Thailand’s Chamber of Commerce estimated that the cannabis industry had for that year generated around 40 billion baht (US$1.1 billion) for Thailand’s economy. Bigwigs of BJT personally benefited from marijuana liberalisation: Newin’s family holds shares in Tao Bin, which manufactures beverages containing cannabis, while Anutin’s Sino-Thai Group has made massive investments in the hemp business.
Months before the May 2023 election, the Democrats, pushing to re-include cannabis on the narcotics list, scuttled a BJT-backed bill aimed at establishing a “free” cannabis and hemp law. During pre-election 2023, the Democrats, Pheu Thai and Move Forward promised to restrict marijuana. But BJT campaigned on marijuana liberalisation, making it a pre-condition to join any coalition government. Ultimately, BJT won all constituency MPs in Buriram,70 MPs nationwide, and joined the Srettha Thavisin-helmed Pheu Thai led-government. In 2024, BJT appears to have grudgingly agreed to support Srettha’s ban on the recreational use of marijuana. Still, BJT could succeed in influencing the state’s cannabis policy because if BJT’s 71 MPs leave the 314-member coalition, Srettha would have to bring in the 25 Democrat MPs to barely maintain a majority (he would not bring in Move Forward because it could soon face judicial dissolution).
In 2024, recriminalising marijuana is beset by two challenges. First, given that marijuana in Thailand is a “growing multi-billion dollar industry,” it would be difficult for the state to enforce the sudden re-criminalisation of the plant. Second, it would be equally challenging for Srettha to compel BJT, wary of too strict a marijuana law, to remain in the coalition. These challenges could help to sustain a legal vacuum of cannabis regulation.
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