Bangkok (AFP) – Thai cannabis store owners and activists on Thursday hit out at new government plans to tighten the rules on selling the drug by requiring a doctor's approval, three years after it was decriminalised.
Issued on: 26/06/2025 -
Thailand's government has announced a plan to tighten rules on selling cannabis, the kingdom's latest attempt to restrict the drug, three years after it was decriminalised © Chanakarn Laosarakham / AFP/File
The kingdom was the first country in Southeast Asia to decriminalise the drug when it removed cannabis from the list of banned narcotics in June 2022.
The intention was to allow sales for medical rather than recreational use, but the move led to hundreds of cannabis "dispensaries" springing up around the country, particularly in Bangkok.
While the relaxation has proved popular with some tourists, there are concerns that the trade is under-regulated.
Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin signed an order late on Tuesday requiring an on-site doctor to approve sales for medical reasons.
The rule would only come into force once it is published in the official Royal Gazette. It is not clear when this would happen.
Thanatat Chotiwong, a long-time cannabis activist and store owner, said it was "not fair" to suddenly change the rules on a sector that was now well established.
"This is a fully-fledged industry -- not just growers selling flowers. There are lighting suppliers, construction crews, farmers, soil and fertiliser developers, and serious R&D," he told AFP.
"Some of us have invested tens of millions of baht in greenhouses and infrastructure. Then suddenly, the government steps in to shut it all down."
Thanatat urged the government instead to "implement proper taxation and regulation -- so this revenue can be returned to society in a meaningful way."
- 'Too few doctors' -
The government has made several previous announcements of plans to restrict cannabis, including legislation moved in February last year, but none has come to fruition.
The new rules would mean cannabis could only be sold to customers for medical reasons, under the supervision of licensed professionals such as medical doctors, traditional Thai medicine doctors, folk healers or dentists.
"It's going to work like this: customers come in, say what symptoms they have, and the doctor decides how many grams of cannabis is appropriate and which strain to prescribe," Kajkanit Sakdisubha, owner of The Dispensary cannabis shop in Bangkok, told AFP.
"The choice is no longer up to the customer -- it's not like going to a restaurant and pick your favorite dish from a menu anymore."
And he warned that many of the shops that had sprouted since decriminalisation would not be able to adapt to the changes.
"The reality is there are too few doctors available. I believe that many entrepreneurs knew regulations were coming, but no one knew when," he said.
While waiting for the rules to come into force, The Dispensary is halting cannabis sales as a precaution, store manager Bukoree Make said.
"Customers themselves are unsure whether what they're doing is legal. I've been receiving a lot of calls," Poramat Jaikla, the lead seller or "budtender", told AFP.
The cannabis move comes as the government led by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party is hanging by a thread after losing its main coalition partner, Bhumjaithai.
Though conservative, the Bhumjaithai party has long supported more liberal laws on cannabis.
The party quit the coalition this month in a row over a leaked phone call between Paetongtarn and former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
© 2025 AFP
The intention was to allow sales for medical rather than recreational use, but the move led to hundreds of cannabis "dispensaries" springing up around the country, particularly in Bangkok.
While the relaxation has proved popular with some tourists, there are concerns that the trade is under-regulated.
Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin signed an order late on Tuesday requiring an on-site doctor to approve sales for medical reasons.
The rule would only come into force once it is published in the official Royal Gazette. It is not clear when this would happen.
Thanatat Chotiwong, a long-time cannabis activist and store owner, said it was "not fair" to suddenly change the rules on a sector that was now well established.
"This is a fully-fledged industry -- not just growers selling flowers. There are lighting suppliers, construction crews, farmers, soil and fertiliser developers, and serious R&D," he told AFP.
"Some of us have invested tens of millions of baht in greenhouses and infrastructure. Then suddenly, the government steps in to shut it all down."
Thanatat urged the government instead to "implement proper taxation and regulation -- so this revenue can be returned to society in a meaningful way."
- 'Too few doctors' -
The government has made several previous announcements of plans to restrict cannabis, including legislation moved in February last year, but none has come to fruition.
The new rules would mean cannabis could only be sold to customers for medical reasons, under the supervision of licensed professionals such as medical doctors, traditional Thai medicine doctors, folk healers or dentists.
"It's going to work like this: customers come in, say what symptoms they have, and the doctor decides how many grams of cannabis is appropriate and which strain to prescribe," Kajkanit Sakdisubha, owner of The Dispensary cannabis shop in Bangkok, told AFP.
"The choice is no longer up to the customer -- it's not like going to a restaurant and pick your favorite dish from a menu anymore."
And he warned that many of the shops that had sprouted since decriminalisation would not be able to adapt to the changes.
"The reality is there are too few doctors available. I believe that many entrepreneurs knew regulations were coming, but no one knew when," he said.
While waiting for the rules to come into force, The Dispensary is halting cannabis sales as a precaution, store manager Bukoree Make said.
"Customers themselves are unsure whether what they're doing is legal. I've been receiving a lot of calls," Poramat Jaikla, the lead seller or "budtender", told AFP.
The cannabis move comes as the government led by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party is hanging by a thread after losing its main coalition partner, Bhumjaithai.
Though conservative, the Bhumjaithai party has long supported more liberal laws on cannabis.
The party quit the coalition this month in a row over a leaked phone call between Paetongtarn and former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
© 2025 AFP
Thailand decriminalised cannabis 3 years ago. Now it’s banning sales without a prescription
Copyright Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo
By Euronews with AP
Published on
The shift comes amid a rift between former coalition partners in the Thai government.
Thailand is further tightening control of cannabis by banning sales of the plant to those without prescriptions.
Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalise cannabis in 2022, in a move that boosted Thailand’s tourism and farming, and spawned thousands of shops.
But the country has faced public backlash over allegations that under-regulation has made the drug available to children and caused addiction.
Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin signed an order this week that bans shops from selling cannabis to customers without a prescription. It also seeks to reclassify cannabis buds as a controlled herb.
Phanurat Lukboon, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said Wednesday that his agency is ready to study and implement the change in regulations.
The order did not detail any punishment for the violation. It will take effect when it is published in the Royal Gazette, although it was unclear when that would happen.
The ruling Pheu Thai Party previously promised to criminalise the drug again, but faced strong resistance from its former partner in the coalition government, the Bhumjaithai Party, which supported decriminalisation.
Somsak told reporters that he would like to relist cannabis as a narcotic in the future. The move came after officials last month revealed that cannabis smuggling cases involving tourists had soared in recent months.
Phanurat said that a study done by his agency last year found the number of people addicted to cannabis had spiked significantly after it was decriminalised.
A group of cannabis advocates said Wednesday that the change in regulations was politically motivated. The group said they will rally at the Health Ministry next month to oppose the change and the attempt to make it a criminal offence again to consume or sell cannabis.
Embattled Thai PM reshuffles cabinet as crisis rages
Bangkok (AFP) – Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra began a cabinet reshuffle on Monday as a political and judicial crisis sparked by a leaked phone call threatens to sink her government.
Issued on: 23/06/2025 - RFI
Bangkok (AFP) – Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra began a cabinet reshuffle on Monday as a political and judicial crisis sparked by a leaked phone call threatens to sink her government.
Issued on: 23/06/2025 - RFI
Paetongtarn Shinawatra is battling a political crisis © Handout / ROYAL THAI GOVERNMENT/AFP
The 38-year-old daughter of controversial former premier Thaksin Shinawatra began handing out ministerial posts vacated when her main coalition partner quit last week -- a move that nearly took her government down.
Paetongtarn, in office for less than a year, is hanging on by a thread, and on top of the party horse-trading she now faces a Constitutional Court case that could see her barred from office.
She faced calls to quit or call an election last week as critics accused her of undermining the country and insulting the army during the leaked call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen, which focused on a festering border dispute.
The conservative Bhumjaithai party quit the governing coalition led by Paetongtarn's Pheu Thai party over the call, leaving it with a wafer-thin majority.
But the crisis stabilised as other coalition partners said they would stay, and Pheu Thai secretary general Sorawong Thienthong told AFP on Monday that all 10 remaining parties were sticking with the government.
"None of the other parties are pulling out -- the remaining parties are staying united with the government," Sorawong said.
"The prime minister has discussed the reshuffle with other political leaders."
The new cabinet line-up will be finalised by Friday but sources said changes are expected in key positions including the defence ministry as the border row with Cambodia rumbles on.
The long-running dispute over several small stretches of the frontier in northeast Thailand flared into military clashes last month that left one Cambodian soldier dead.
The standoff has shown little sign of going away and on Monday the Thai army closed border crossings in six provinces to all vehicles and foot passengers except students and people seeking medical treatment.
The latest border restrictions apply to foreigners as well as Thais, and mean that tourists cannot enter Cambodia via the popular Aranyaprathet-Poipet crossing point.
The move came a day after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet ordered a halt to fuel and gas imports from Thailand.
He visited troops on the border on Monday and an evacuation centre housing some 3,850 people moved from their homes near the border as a precaution.
Hun Manet said Monday that the "key" to normalising relations again lay with Thailand, blaming "Thai nationalism and internal politics" for the dispute.
Court case looms
With the loss of Bhumjaithai, the government can command only a handful more than the 248 votes needed for a majority in parliament, making it deeply vulnerable.
A group of political activists involved in huge demonstrations that helped sink previous leaders linked to the Shinawatras has pledged to hold a major rally on Saturday calling for Paetongtarn to quit.
Even if Paetongtarn rides out the parliamentary crisis, a potentially bigger threat is looming in the Constitutional Court.
A group of conservative senators has submitted a petition asking the court to throw Paetongtarn out of office over her conduct in the call with Hun Sen.
The same court sacked Paetongtarn's predecessor, Srettha Thavisin, in an ethics case in August last year.
Srettha was the latest in a long line of Thai prime ministers from parties linked to Thaksin to be kicked out of office by court orders or military coups -- including Thaksin himself and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Thai politics has endured two decades of chronic instability fuelled by a long-running battle between the military, pro-royalist establishment and parties linked to Thaksin.
While Thaksin, 75, remains popular with his rural base, he is deeply disliked and distrusted by Thailand's powerful elite.
In another headache for the Shinawatras, Thaksin faces a criminal trial next week for insulting the monarchy in an interview with South Korean media a decade ago.
Under Thailand's strict lese-majeste laws, insulting King Maha Vajiralongkorn or his close family is punishable by up to 15 years in jail for each offence.
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© 2025 AFP
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