Marijuana will be Decriminalized by June 9 in Thailand

[Rockheart]

So they are decriminalizing weed in Thailand as of June 9. Citizens will be able to grow plants in their homes for consumption or to sell to the government.
Consumption of full strength Cannabis will only be allowed in private homes, smoking in public will not be allowed.
It is not clear if tourists will be able to smoke it in private but part of Thailand's Cannabis strategy is to appeal to tourists more so their will probably be some arrangement.

Good to see them lighten up a bit in Thailand about stuff like this.
Thailand used to be number one in the world for weed until the US war on drugs. (Now the drugs are winning the war with the USA)
They have an advantage of the hot sun to grow their crops unlike in Canada where most is grown indoors with lights.

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/holding-weed-and-using-it-on-track-to-be-legal-in-10-more-days/

Police even got in trouble for recently arresting someone with one pot plant in their home.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxjyj/thailand-legalize-cannabis-plant

[rick78]

That's good news. I don't enjoy Marijuana myself, but as a liberal, I think people should be free to do so.

[rxpharm]

Things are getting complicated as politics is changing things - this Youtube video from Tim Newton covers some of the current mess regarding the marijuana law. This is going to complicate things for many of the marijuana shops that have sprung up in many of the Thai tourist areas.

[Rockheart]

Well it removes and income source for the Police. Thai people were generally allowed to smoke weed before no problem but tourists risked a large fine. Given they are a tourism based economy this isn't very hospitable. Hopefully now it will not be treated like serious drugs.

[Rockheart]

Seems like the weed thing is going full steam. Pattaya seems to have 20 or more cannabis stores, even more than Bangkok.

bangkok_cannabis.jpg pattaya_cannabis.jpg budtender.jpg

[rxpharm]

The last attempt to pass the new laws regulating marijuana use has failed.

It is unlikely it will be legalized for recreational use as the current opposition parties (who are likely to win the next election) are opposed to this. The most likely result will be legalizing for medical use only. This will likely cause a lot of these marijuana shops to close, unless they are changed to medical marijuana dispensaries.

[Rockheart]

Yes but it will probably remain as it is now, in a grey zone until May at least.
Likely most stores will stay open at least until elections in May. Depending on who wins the election, then there may be action on expanding or contracting recreational sales of cannabis. Once they let the genie out of the bottle it is pretty hard to put it back in. Like Canada once it was decriminalized and medical dispensaries were legal, it was almost impossible to control recreational use. Since so many people will tend to smoke it, they won't start fining and jailing mass amounts of people over weed.
Of course you can never quite be quite sure how elections there will turn out, so we will see what happens.
However as we all know, prostitution has always been technically illegal in Thailand while remaining one of the largest tourist industries.

Cannabis is now decriminalized and should stay that way which means as long as you don't smoke in public or sell it to minors, people will be able to smoke it.
They have made some new rules like stores cannot display cannabis signs or symbols.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Tha...and-curb-abuse

Cannabis is becoming legal in a bulk of countries around the world and will probably continue to move that way. If full legalization in Thailand doesn't happen soon, it will happen later. It's just a world trend. Plus Thailand will have a hard time competing in the travel market if they don't legalize the weed. I know at one time Thailand was considering being the family vacation capital of the world but this is not their forte or what they are traditionally known for. Disney already has that market well under control. Thailand is always known for beaches, unrestricted party and girls. I think the men that come there spend far more money that families would.

I recently visited Puerto Vallarta Mexico and while weed is still illegal there, the access to weed and quality have improved greatly. The street weed was high quality as compared to the past where it was not that great.
There was even some online dispensaries there that delivered high quality bud to consumers.
Mexico was one of the few countries in the world that did not destroy their tourist economy due to covid and are now reaping the benefits.
While Mexico doesn't have the quantity of ladyboys that Thailand has, they do have a good selection. The prices in Mexico are comparable to Thailand, however accomodation still seems somewhat higher. Overall the beaches in Mexico are better than Thailand and often cleaner.
So being closer to the USA and Canada they can provide significant competition to travelers looking for a beach vacation.