As Thailand tries to clean up its hazy cannabis laws, will the high times come to an end?

“What can I say? I’m from England and everyone smokes back there,” the 40-something visitor says from the curb, before retreating behind a smoker’s cough and a wall of weed smoke.

His actions are not strictly legal, but for now it is unlikely he will be stopped. Thailand decriminalised cannabis in June, but without establishing the fine print of who is allowed to smoke, what, where, when and how.

The aim of the law in a Southeast Asian country with harsh drug penalties – according to its champion, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul – is to spur the economy by using Thais’ green fingers to grow high-grade cannabis plants for sale in medicinal marijuana use; hemp tonics, ointments, CDB oils and cancer treatments of no more than 0.2 per cent THC content, or not enough to get high.

But recreational use has exploded, creating a grey area of law enforcement, worrying parents and enraging conservative elements of Thai society, who are now pushing for the plant to be returned to the list of outlawed narcotics – or at least heavily controlled.

“The problem starts when you legalise something without regulation and without the people enforcing the law having any idea of what is happening or even what cannabis is,” says Kitty Chopaka, a long-time free weed advocate and one of the driving forces for better education and law on the issue.

“This is the retaliation for that … but anyone who has been in business or advocacy in the cannabis space in Thailand for long enough knows you can never tell what will happen next.”

The Cannabis and Hemp Act is yet to be passed, leaving lawmakers playing catch-up with temporary restrictions to coax back into control a weed scene which many experts say is currently the most liberal anywhere.