Thailand Tightens Up Cannabis Sales

TaiwanPlus News

Thailand now requires a medical prescription to buy cannabis after being legal to use recreationally for the past three years. This shift is expected to impact nearly 20,000 licensed cannabis shops.

Transcript

00:01In Thailand, streets lined with cannabis shops have become a familiar sight

00:05after the country became the first in Asia to decriminalize the drug three years ago.

00:11Tourists flocked to the country as cannabis became easily accessible for recreational use.

00:16But that's all changed.

00:18The government has added cannabis back onto the list of prescribed narcotics,

00:22making it illegal to use without a prescription for medical use.

00:25This shift is expected to impact nearly 20,000 licensed cannabis shops.

00:31Some provinces with heavy stigma is pretty much using this as a crackdown,

00:37while some other provinces realizing that they have way too many shops within their area

00:43and don't know what to do with the overwhelmed work that is about to come out,

00:48are also saying to the shop owners to calm down, we're not changing the rules yet.

00:53So there's a lot of confusion that's going on, owners are freaking out, a lot of them are scared.

01:02A lot of shops are now closed, but now we changed the plan, maybe open to cleanliness.

01:16So what does the law change entail?

01:18Cannabis is now for medical use only.

01:22No recreational use is allowed.

01:25Sales will be limited to a 30-day supply.

01:28Violators may face up to a year in prison and a $600 fine.

01:33But some customers think there will be ways to get around the restrictions.

01:37Now they want to solve the problem by just putting in the license, putting in the license.

01:41In the end, it's just the same, right?

01:42I can ask someone that I know, if he or she may be a doctor, I can get a license for what?

01:48I don't know how many baht I have to pay, right?

01:50So the problem still exists.

01:52But why is Thailand doing this?

01:54The government says legalized cannabis has caused social problems,

01:58with increased use among young people, addiction, and complaints about foreigners using it in public.

02:04Cannabis advocates like Kiri say they are working on finding ways to raise public awareness in favor of it,

02:11increasing acceptance and understanding to keep the plant legal.

02:16Devon Tsai and Isabel Wang for Taiwan Plus.

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