With the change, the Thai government allowed individuals to grow cannabis plants at home for health purposes. However, smoking cannabis recreationally remains unlawful, punishable by a fine of 25,000 baht (US$723) and up to three months in jail. Commercial cultivation without a licence is not allowed either.
Despite limiting cannabis to medical use, Thailand is widely deemed to be the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise the use of marijuana, and critics have raised concerns about regulatory loopholes that could create more addicts.
Also, Thailand today began freeing 3,071 inmates who had been convicted of cannabis-related crimes. “The Corrections Department has prepared some paperwork in advance in order to facilitate the courts to issue release orders,” said justice minister Somsak Thepsuthin.
Thais had mixed feelings on the release of the prisoners. Some said it was all right, since cannabis has been decriminalised. However, others feared that the inmates could commit new crimes.
“Legalising cannabis for medical purposes is useful,” said a 28-year-old office worker in Bangkok. “But I am not sure those prisoners released from jails are ready to return to society.”
Thailand took its first step toward legalising cannabis in 2019, when the government allowed people to use it for medical purposes. Last year it approved cannabis as an additive to food and drinks. This encouraged food processors and restaurants to add marijuana to everything from traditional Thai dishes to bread, cookies and pizza.
While the deregulation will help the economy grow with new products and services, some people raised concerns over its dark side of loopholes creating the potential for addiction – the decriminalisation took effect before the issuance of the new Cannabis-Hemp Act, which is expected to regulate cannabis and prevent its use as a narcotic.
“What we know for sure now is that cannabis can be grown and used freely, and we may see marijuana being sold in the open on roadsides,” police major general Pichai Sangchanchai said, concerned that deregulation without the new act “will allow teenagers to access the drug easily”.
Rasmon Kalayasiri, director of the Centre for Addiction Studies, warned, “No one can confirm that the existing law can stop people from smoking marijuana [recreationally] if they do it secretly at home or somewhere else.”
The authorities also have made contradictory statements about how they will apply the law, causing confusion and possibly creating room for wrongdoers to break the rules.
A 35-year-old man who own a cannabis cafe right in the heart of Bangkok’s Ladprao district can openly display and sell marijuana-smoking equipment without getting his business shut down, although smoking marijuana is not allowed for recreational purposes.
“Those marijuana pipes are sold as decorations,” he told Nikkei Asia. “It’s not my responsibility if clients want to use them to smoke at home. As long as they do not smoke it here, I’m not in the wrong.”
Facebook has several fan pages gathering cannabis lovers and marijuana smokers, who frequently come together at events held by the groups. The Ganjachon (Cannabis People) page is a famous one, with more than 460,000 followers.
“People should have the right to live their own lives,” said Rattapon Sanrak, a 35-year-old who supports the legalisation of marijuana. “If they want to smoke [marijuana], they have right to do so. It’s not the authorities’ business.”
But some doctors and health workers disagree with the liberalisation because they fear that legalising marijuana completely would allow more people to get addicted to it, leading to mental health problems and possibly even to addicts committing crimes.
Data from the Centre of Addiction Studies shows that the number 18- or 19-year-olds who smoke marijuana has been rising substantially since 2019, when the government started pushing for the legalisation of cannabis.
“Those who smoke marijuana habitually for about three years normally are diagnosed with a psychotic disorder,” Rasmon said.
“The cat is out of the bag, and what concerns us the most is that during the period when we have no [new] law to control it, the number of new smokers will rise, and that will bring further problems.”