Thailand’s new government is moving ahead to pass new legisalation banning cannabis for recreational use in a major reversal 18 months after the country became the first in Asia to decriminalize the plant.
The relaxed laws saw a lucrative cannabis industry catering to locals and foreigners alike boom across the Southeast Asian nation, but a new conservative coalition government came to power late last year vowing to tighten the rules and only allow medical use.
A draft bill was released on Tuesday by Thailand’s health ministry outlining hefty fines or prison sentences of up to one year for offenders – or both.
Did I miss it? Was there a reason given or is it just the new “conservative coalition” doesn’t like it?
Right-wing gonna hate. Conservatives just got nothin else to do.
You can’t be a conservative without hating things that make people happy while allowing things that make people sick like alcohol, cigarettes, and motor vehicles.
It was part of their election campaign I presume. Vote for us and we will walk back the law.
I’ve spent a lot of time in South East Asia and I’ve found most south east asian cultures to be deeply pretentious. It’s fine to live in a shoe box provided that you’re carrying an iPhone, et cetera.
A lot of Thais felt that legalisation had meant that the world suddenly identified Thailand as some kind of “drug country”, which is absolutely unacceptable to many Thais.
It’s not a question of whether weed ought to be legal, it’s a question of whether Thai people wish to be thought of as some kind of junkie nation.
The equivalent to the legalization of cannabis making people think of Thailand as a 'junkie nation’s would be the rampant sex tourism making people think of Thailand as a paedo nation. And they’ve been fine with that for decades. So I very much doubt that it’s because “south east Asian cultures” are “deeply pretentious”. Also, just grouping hundreds of millions of people from vastly different cultures together as monolithic and “deeply pretentious” ironically says more about your own levels of deep pretension than about south east Asian cultures
Sure mate.
You probably mean to say I’m prejudiced or even racist or something rather than pretentious, and that would be true in this case.
Pretentious is a loaded term. One might say “heavily motivated by perceptions of class”.
I haven’t grouped culture’s together as monolithic. Merely that the many and varied cultures I’ve encountered in SEA are very concerned with the perceptions of others.
I’ve spoken to many Thais about this very issue, at length, including my partner. You don’t care whether you believe me, but it absolutely is because they worry about being perceived as a country of drug users.
You literally wrote most south east Asian cultures are deeply pretentious. Having a Thai partner doesn’t somehow magically make you an authority on a region with close to 700 million people. You’re grouping together countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Burma and Singapore and calling them deeply pretentious. Bringing up a Thai partner to demonstrate some kind of authority in the matter fits perfectly in with the rest of it. I don’t have any issues believing you have a Thai partner and have spoken to many Thais. My issue again is with you thinking that fact gives you the authority to casually judge a region of 700 million people as deeply pretentious. And then doubling down.
I don’t claim to be an authority. This is my opinion.
I’ve actually spent a great deal of time in each of the countries you mentioned with the exception of Singapore. I’m entitled to have an opinion, with which you may disagree if you wish.
I didn’t disclaim my opinion with mealy mouthed qualifications as in “well in my opinion people I’ve met in South East Asia often tend to be more pretentious than the average person in, say, Australia” because I just don’t care what you think.
I have in fact spent a great deal of time talking with Thais both in Thailand and abroad about this exact issue. I suspect you might be surprised at how many of them would just outright tell you “yeah I don’t like how everyone thinks Thailand is some kind of drug country now”.
Are you white? Because they won’t extend the same courtesy to brown people… specifically Indians.
Yes I’m white.
Skin color is a very strong indicator of class or social status in Thailand. People who work outside or in the fields will have darker skin. People who sit around all day in-doors will have lighter skin.
While logically people can acknowledge that this isn’t true in 2024, there’s plenty of wealthy people with a dark complexion, it’s so deeply embedded in Thai culture that beautiful, desirable people have light skin.
Not OP but:
It’s kind of true. As an Indian I know how much SEA turns up their nose at the sight of Indians.
I worked over there. Man Singapore looks so far down on Indians and Malaysians it’s amazing they can even see things to be racist about. And then they steal everyone else’s cuisine anyways.
It’s amazing how much SEA cares about status and all that but I think it’s to make sure they note that while being working class countries they are white collar instead of blue in an attempt to excuse anything away. “Hey, at least we aren’t farmers”
Even the birth places of Buddhism, Daoism, and more can’t avoid the trappings of perceived identity.
I’ve seen article in the past couple of months that basically said the regulation for cannabis when it became legal was next to nothing, and that caused some issues with locals when some people tried to take advantage of the lack of regulation.
I can’t remember the specifics, but I’m sure it had to do with an over abundance of stores popping up in major tourist areas.
Anecdotally, I will say that it has caused an increase of selling weed to other neighbouring countries. When I went to visits friends in Cambodia this summer, there was lots of ‘hydro’ available in cities close to the border that is 100X better than the stuff in Cambodia, where it’s legal-ish.
It isn’t legal-ish in Cambodia, laws are just not enforced very much with low public confidence in anything being done.
It’s legal for ‘traditional uses’ which I would say is legal-ish. Even though most of them shut down, there are still Happy Pizza shops in every major city.
It had use traditionally and could be bought by the bagful (as in, plastic bag) for a dollar back in the day at local markets, however that is no longer the case. Happy pizza places bribe the cops not to bust them, which doesn’t make it legal. I don’t think there is a provision for traditional usage anymore:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191206214427/http://www.cambodiainvestment.gov.kh/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Law-on-Drug-Management_full-text_961209.pdf
You can get permission for medical purposes, but that’s about it.
I was there this summer and finding cannabis was not hard. One tourist place there was literally woman walking around holding a tray of selection trying to get the attention of foreigners to sell. Like in an old fashion casino. The rule was you could only use the stuff in designated areas but no one was enforcing. Every tourist bar has people using it. Hemp does grow wild there and they been making tea for selling for who knows how long.
From what I gathered the market exploded, got oversaturated, and now places are starting up/dying every month. I guess like vape stores in the West.