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Destinations known | Why Thailand’s coming reversal on marijuana may be for the benefit of tourists: drug’s easy availability puts off Chinese even as it draws visitors from elsewhere
- The country decriminalised hemp and marijuana to promote the latter’s cultivation for medicinal use, but potheads soon saw it as the ‘Amsterdam of Asia’
- One factor in the next government’s move to reclassify cannabis as a narcotic could be negative Chinese perceptions of drug’s wide availability
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“Thailand’s cannabis lovers face comedown …” reads an oh-so-predictable headline on the Al Jazeera website.
In June 2022, health minister Anutin Charnvirakul removed cannabis from Thailand’s list of banned narcotics, the country becoming the first in Asia to effectively decriminalise hemp and marijuana.
The intention was, primarily, to promote the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal use, but the lack of clear restrictions led to a sharp uptake by those more interested in getting high.
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Growers and sellers blossomed like buds in a greenhouse, with stoners and potheads from near and far making sure Thailand was deserving of its new billing as the “Amsterdam of Asia”.
In December, even with tourist numbers still far off pre-Covid-19 levels, a Post Magazine writer in Phuket discovered that “just about every weed shop I see in Patong over the weekend – and there are more than 100 of them – has customers buying or smoking”.
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