Sawadee Everyone,
I had two recent encounters recently that made me chuckle. The first just before the new year when a gentleman said he was going to buy a few ounces because he heard that weed would be illegal starting Jan 1. The other was another gentleman who kept insisting that weed was illegal because he read it in the news.
Both are wrong. But I don’t fault them. Think of the myriad of topics you only skim from time to time without going too deep into.
For me, I own stock in Apple so I get Apple related news in my news feed. I’m a long-term investor in Apple so I don’t really dive too deep into the day to day machinations since it has no impact on whether or not I keep my Apple stock but I do like to be mildly aware of what’s going on.
A lot of people are like that with cannabis. They roughly know what’s going on but they don’t keep up with every plot twist in the never-ending legalization saga.
And the media doesn’t help. How often did they keep writing those “news” stories saying smoking weed in public was illegal when it is only illegal if you cause a public nuisance with your smoking?
Weed is legal in Thailand but tourists can't smoke
That was printed in the Washington Post (that is the headline on Google, but when you click thru to the website it shows a different title). No wonder people have less trust in the media.
They’ve done the same with the new cannabis bill, referring to it as if it has already passed multiple readings in parliament and has been signed into law.
It hasn’t.
But even people that are seemingly informed on cannabis can be wrong too. For instance, this seems to be the general sentiment amongst many in the cannabis community.
No disrespect to Thais who are upset at the smell in public. But is the smell of cannabis at a concert going to be the thing that ends Thailands recreational cannabis industry? Really? My favourite part was that some (guessing hiso) Thais were particularly offended that the smell wasn’t just concentrated within the cheap seats. lol!
Anyway, this one looks serious and the vibes I’m getting is that the party could really be over. I blame Coldplay. Coldplay ruined weed in Thailand. Thanks Coldplay.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thailand/comments/1ao8mhy/weed_at_a_concert_clutch_my_pearls/
This doesn’t even make sense (even if the author may have been half-joking). The bill was declared final and was being signed and sent to parliament a day or two after the controversy at the Coldplay concert.
First off, it’s highly unlikely that the Minister of Public Health would ban recreational use of cannabis because some people didn’t like the smell of weed at a music concert.
Second, what is being submitted is basically a law before it becomes a law. In other words, it’s not something someone throws together like a social media rant. The wording has to be carefully scrutinized by lawyers to make sure it will do what it is intended to do. While it’s possible it was vetted by lawyers in 24 - 48 hours, it seems unlikely given the two points below.
Third, we already know there was a draft bill prior to the concert. There was a version of the bill that was leaked to the public which contained many of the same provisions as the one that is being submitted to parliament. While there were a few surprises between the leaked draft and the final draft, none of that seems specifically motivated by the Coldplay concert.
Fourth, the Minister of Public Health, the effective author of the bill, is a member of the Pheu Thai Party who campaigned on eliminating recreational use and whose prime minister said he was strongly against recreational use in an interview with the international media. If the fact that they would submit a bill that limits recreational use is a surprise to anyone, they clearly are living in an alternate reality.
Look at these poll numbers:
19 Jun 2022: 58.55% of Thais agree with the removal of cannabis from the narcotics list.
That’s the news that most people in the cannabis community celebrated.
But the very same poll asked the question about whether or not people were concerned abut inappropriate use and 72.06% of Thais said they were either concerned or very concerned about inappropriate use (of note is the fact that very concerned was whopping 42.44%).
As I have said in previous newsletters, Thais are generally in favor of cannabis for medicinal use and are very much against recreational use but there seems to be a very large disconnect between Thai public opinion and what the cannabis community believes the Thai public sentiment to be.
The upcoming bill is not a product of a Coldplay concert. It’s very much something that has been brewing since Election Day last year.
While I’ve placed a lot of blame on the media, I do feel that some of this is due to wishful thinking on the part of the cannabis community.
It’s difficult to accurately assess a situation when you’re emotionally or financially invested in the outcome. That’s why the best sports bettors don’t have a favorite team, they bet based on what the data says.
When you become emotionally invested in an outcome, it’s easy to dismiss information that doesn’t align with your views rather than seeing it as a reason to reassess your views.
I do want to make my views clear as the same kind of people that are too emotionally invested in the outcome on cannabis often misinterpret these kinds of newsletter articles for anti-cannabis views.
I think people should be able to smoke wherever they please and use cannabis any reason they want, as long as it is not infringing on someone else’s rights.
In other words, I support someone’s right to smoke in public but not their right to blow smoke in a child’s face.
However, with that said, I also recognize that we live in a society where some people have never known weed to be legal until recently and they’re filled with drug war propaganda about the dangers of cannabis and have concerns.
In many ways the path that Thailand took towards legalization was both brilliant and doomed at the same time.
It was brilliant in that Anutin threw off all restrictions which gave everyone a chance to explode the cannabis scene in Thailand in an unrestricted manner. It grew so large so fast that, it really would be a disaster to try and rein it in too much.
On the other hand, Thailand is and always has been somewhat conservative. While the younger generations are considerably more progressive and worldly than their parents and grandparents, they’re still far behind western countries in terms of progressiveness (which, at least on some topics, is still a good thing).
Going from strictly illegal to completely unrestricted was always going to be a difficult transition for a lot of the Thai public.
There was no period for people who believed the government propaganda against drugs to get comfortable with the fact that cannabis isn’t in the same class of drugs as yaba or meth.
The backlash from this segment of Thai society was inevitable and made even worse by the way in which cannabis exploded across Thailand.
I’ve always felt that the cannabis community should lean into that. In other words, the cannabis community shouldn’t invalidate their feelings by being dismissive but explain why those feelings are wrong.
Like I pointed out in the last newsletter, in the US, the over 65 demographic is the fastest growing segment of the cannabis customer base. There’s hope even for the formerly brainwashed.
And here in Thailand, nearly 60% of the population already sees the potential for cannabis as a medical treatment.
The smoothest path to accepting recreational for those people is to educate them on how medicinal use extends beyond the obvious things like cancer or pain relief.
They need to recognize that cannabis can be a great therapy for everything from anxiety to insomnia.
But that’s a slow process because people need to see (and sometimes, feel) the proof. You’re trying to erase a lifetime worth of drug war brainwashing.
Had the election results been different or a different party was selected to run the government we could have gotten there.
But I don’t want to leave this week’s newsletter so doomy and gloomy so let’s look at what’s next for cannabis.
Right now, Pheu Thai (PT) and the PM’s focus is on the digital wallet scheme and it isn’t going well. That is great news for cannabis as it offers someone like Bhumajaithai (BJT) leverage to soften the cannabis bill in exchange for helping support the digital wallet scheme.
Move Forward Party (MFP), the only other major party that may mount some opposition is in danger of being dissolved which, if it were to happen, would eliminate any PT hope of bringing them in to get the bill passed.
Even if MFP isn’t dissolved, they’re the opposition party and seem to be living up to that role by needling PT on every action they propose so they may oppose the bill just because it’s a PT bill which would make BJT support even more crucial.
We also haven’t seen how some of the big players are positioning themselves. For instance, I’ve heard that the people from Central Group (yes, the Central department stores people) have already begun growing and CP Group (yes, the people behind 7-11) are also interested in jumping into the weed game.
This is far from a done deal. PT needs BJT support to get the bill across the line and BJT is likely to water down any overreach. Likewise, the business community will likely be in the background maneuvering and putting pressure on individual politicians to make sure the law doesn’t interfere with their goals.
That’s the best case scenario for everyone involved. PT gets to claim they got rid of recreational cannabis, which Thai people generally dislike, while not doing anything that would actually hinder the cannabis industry.
So, strap in and let’s see how this plays out.
Stay lifted and enlightened,
Don’t forget that we’ve partnered with some dispensaries for exclusive deals available to members of this newsletter and the r/CannabisThailand sub on Reddit. Just type “Dank Deal” into the comments of any post and the AutoMod will send you the current discounts being offered.
Find us on: