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The Reddit sub r/CannabisThailand is a community dedicated to cannabis related issues in Thailand. Our newsletter is a summary of the best posts along with a little update about the cannabis situation and culture in Thailand mixed in.

r/CannabisThailand Newsletter - Issue #64

High on Misinformation

CannabisThailandMod

Sep 24, 2023

Sawadee Everyone,

This week, Thailand's new PM, Srettha Thavisin, had a chinwag with Bloomberg. Now, seemingly every media outlet's shouting, "Thailand’s cannabis party is over!" But let's take a rewind:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1704715312262676984

Haslinda Amin (reporter): You’ve gone on record to say that you’d like cannabis to be used only for medical reasons . . .

Srettha: For medical reasons only.

Amin: What would you do now?

Srettha: It’s just for medical reasons. We need the law. We need to rewrite. We have agreement among all the 11 parties that this will be this government’s policy because the problem about drugs has been widespread lately.

Amin: Is there a middle ground? Can it be regulated in any way as opposed to it . . .

Srettha: It would be regulated for medical use.

Amin: How about for leisure use?

Srettha: No

End of video.

Anutin Charnvirakul, previously the Health Head honcho and now Interior Big Cheese, has been singing the "medicinal cannabis" tune forever. This week, he crooned the same old song:

Mr Anutin said yesterday the cannabis policy has only ever been for medical purposes and economic benefit, adding that "efforts have been made to make people misunderstand that recreational use of cannabis is allowed without any control."

Yet, the media's making it sound like we've discovered Atlantis!

Every Thai politico has been on repeat loop since last year: Medicinal. Not Party.

Regardless of who took the PM seat, Pheu Thai or Move Forward, they were always going to have to show a win on this issue.

The easiest win is to roll out some tough sounding regulations that accomplish very little, hold a press conference, and check “Handle drug situation” off the to-do list.

The alternative to that is to announce that tens or hundreds of thousands of people will be losing their jobs, cannabis investors will get shafted, small business owners will be bankrupted, Mission Accomplished!

You don’t need to be a political genius to figure out that the second option is how you end your political career.

And Tesla, Microsoft, and Google, seeing Thailand do an old switcheroo and screw stakeholders should kill that $5 billion in investments Srettha just negotiated.

Let’s not forget, Pheu Thai has many other campaign promises to make good on like the 10,000 baht for every Thai citizen scheme.

Keeping campaign promises takes votes and Pheu Thai will need to knock on Anutin’s door for some of those votes. What will Anutin demand in return? He’s already in the second most powerful role in the country.

To those waving the white flag, chill! It's like thinking the movie's over during the first plot twist.

The game's afoot, Watson! The saga continues...

Cheers,

u/CannabisThailandMod

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