Last year, turnout for the Thai general elections was huge— 75.6%— and Pita Limjaroenrat’s Move Forward had the most votes by far, 38%, winning 151 seats. The second biggest haul was another opposition party, Pheu Thai (28.8% and 141 seats). The 4 parties backing the military won a total of 19.3% and 182 seats. The military blocked Move Forward and instead put a real estate tycoon, Srettha Thavsin in as Prime Minister to lead another conservative government.
I visited Thailand this past spring, just before the election. Bangkok was filled with pot shops, frankly shocking because the place went from rabidly anti-pot to completely “everything goes.” The government was, literally, paying to encourage people to grow pot. I’ve never seen such a change in my life. Well… now it’s changing again... backwards. The new right-wing government “is moving ahead to pass new legislation banning cannabis for recreational use in a major reversal 18 months after the country became the first in Asia to decriminalize the plant. The relaxed laws saw a lucrative cannabis industry catering to locals and foreigners alike boom across the Southeast Asian nation, but a new conservative coalition government came to power late last year vowing to tighten the rules and only allow medical use.”
Cannabis and cannabis-related products will be limited to medical and health purposes only, the bill states, echoing Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s pledge in September that his new government will “rectify” laws on cannabis within the next six months.
[Theoretically, although not in practice] Smoking marijuana in public remained illegal even under the relaxed laws, but the proposed new laws will ban advertising and marketing campaigns for cannabis buds and extracts, and other cannabis products.
…Thavisin has been vocal about banning recreational cannabis and stated in several media interviews that drug abuse is “a big problem for Thailand.”
“We drafted this law to prohibit the wrong usage of cannabis,” said the health minister Cholnan Srikaew, reported Reuters.
“All recreational usage is wrong.”
…[T]housands of cannabis dispensaries have sprung up across Thailand, as well as other cannabis-themed businesses like weed cafes and hemp spas and beauty treatment. Cities like Chiang Mai and the capital Bangkok have even held weed festivals, and decriminalization has been a major draw for tourists.
…Pro-legalization advocates have argued that the cannabis boom across Thailand has helped many Thais, from farmers to small business owners and workers behind the counter.
Cannabis entrepreneurs previously told CNN that they were strongly against any legislation that would hurt the growing multi-billion dollar industry.
The Future Cannabis Network, an advocacy group in Thailand, expressed disappointment at the government’s actions and stressed the importance of “public involvement.”
Kitty Chopaka, a Bangkok-based cannabis entrepreneur who has pushed for cannabis legalization for years, called it a knee jerk reaction from the government and said that it was “not unexpected.”
“But no matter what happens with the incoming cannabis regulations, it is now too late for cannabis to go back to being classified as narcotics.”