r/CannabisThailand Newsletter - Issue #35

Chuweed Makes A Scene

Mar 05, 2023

Sawadee Everyone,

This week we saw a little drama happening in the cannabis world.

For those not aware of who aren’t aware, Chuwit (or Chuvit, depending on the spelling) Kamolvisit is a former soapy massage shop operator who later became a member of Thai parliament who has positioned himself as somewhat of a anti-corruption watchdog.

You may be aware of him from all of the recent news about the Chinese mafia operating in Thailand and the immigration officials that were sacked as a result of helping Chinese mafia members stay in Thailand long-term.

He’s also been responsible for uncovering police involved in gambling operations aimed at Thais.

Chuwit happens to have done very well for himself in the massage game and is a very rich man and in addition to owning the little park on the even-numbered side of Sukhumvit between Nana and Asoke BTS stations (which is now being developed into a commercial project), he also owns the Davis Hotel which has a cannabis dispensary inside.

According to the government, it seems that the Ministry of Public Health had received complaints about illegal advertising for the dispensary and conducted what they called a “routine inspection” of the premises and found no violations.

While many other dispensaries have had a visit from the police and have even posted photos of the police in their dispensary checking that they had all of the proper paperwork, Chuwit did not have a similar reaction.

He called out the minister of public health, Anutin Charnvirakul personally and said that he would bring down the whole BJT political party of which Anutin is the leader.

Chuwit also says that he now no longer supports cannabis legalization in its current form and vowed to fight it and even staged a media event which was apparently about the harm to children.

It’s important to keep in mind that in the past the Thai government has threatened to go after celebrities and social media influencers that have tried to get around the ban on advertising of alcohol by slyly including social media posts of them clearly displaying alcohol brands, so this hyper-sensitive approach doesn’t seem out of line for the government.

But there’s more to the story because supposedly Chuwit has outed some illegal activity by a BJT party member and he claims that the inspection was revenge.

Anutin and the government maintain that the inspection was routine and within their authority.

This is one of those situations where it seems likely that everyone is probably telling a little truth but everyone is also not being 100% transparent.

There have also been published rumors that Chuwit is secretly working on behalf of the anti-cannabis Pheu Thai Party who has been an arch-rival of the BJT party. Of course, this is denied by Chuwit but it does muddy the waters even further.

Speaking of Pheu Thai, the situation for them seems to have taken a turn for the worse recently.

While just a few weeks ago political pundits were busy predicting whether or not Pheu Thai’s win in the upcoming elections would be a landslide or not, the media seems to have shifted to asking if they will even perform well at the polls.

Apparently they’ve had a bit of a falling out with some of the old Red Shirt gang that staged massive protests in Bangkok in 2010. Some in the Red Shirt movement claim that Pheu Thai has basically ignored them and won’t run their candidates on their ticket. This has led to some very big names saying that they no longer support Pheu Thai and defecting to the BJT party.

The media has also been reporting that campaign rallies have not been well attended even when Thaksin’s daughter and Pheu Thai’s presumptive prime minister candidate, Ung Ing has been the featured speaker.

A weaker than expected showing by Pheu Thai would give BJT and cannabis legalization a boost as it would raise the chances of Anutin becoming the next prime minister.

As usual, Thai politics are never boring.

Cheers,

u/CannabisThailandMod