Tabloid News vs Cannabis
r/CannabisThailand Newsletter - Issue #90
Sawadee Everyone,
First off, congratulations are somewhat in order as Germany became the latest to join the legal weed universe. I say, somewhat as the rules are still fairly restrictive but a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, or something like that.
Most of us farangs who want to stay in the know in Thailand read the usual English-language news like the Bangkok Post, The Nation, The Thaiger, Pattaya Mail, Phuket News, and so on.
But there’s a whole other universe of news that most foreigners never see. There are dozens of Thai-language newspapers, magazines, TV and radio programs, social media groups, forums, etc where many news stories appear that will never be printed in English.
There are some more respectable news outlets like ThaiPBS but a large number of Thai media outlets are, for lack of a better term, tabloids. They post gruesome images, tell shocking (and highly unbelievable) tales, and use hyperbolic language to get people emotionally charged up.
If you’ve stood in the checkout counter back home and seen headlines about Elvis being a space alien, that’s about the same as the journalistic integrity of some of these rags.
Here are some recent headlines (translated into English) in the Thai media that should be of interest/concern to cannabis lovers.
The above headlines are not outliers, they’re the norm. I have a Google Alert set up for the word “กัญชา“ which is “Ganja” in Thai and I get anywhere from one story to a dozen stories a day.
There seem to be some central themes behind most of these stories.
Everyone who uses marijuana is an addict.
Marijuana is very addictive.
While marijuana is often taken to help people sleep, somehow in Thailand, it keeps people up for days.
People frequently hallucinate on marijuana in Thailand
It can cause people to go on murderous rampages killing loved ones and strangers.
Of course, while every point above sounds hysterically wrong to anybody who knows anything about cannabis, this is what the “news” is reporting to Thai speakers who may have little or no experience with marijuana.
For instance, I have yet to read a story where a doctor made a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder (CUD) or cannabis addiction, in any case where the media has reported that the person was an addict. This is usually the word of some villager who saw a guy with a knife and ran away and told the police the guy was crazy on marijuana because he saw him smoking weed two weeks ago. Then the cop says the guy was crazy on marijuana and that’s what the press writes.
This brings up a very interesting issue, how many of these people are admitting to being under the influence of cannabis because cannabis is legal, rather than admitting to other drugs with harsher criminal penalties, that are much more likely to cause things like inability to sleep for days, hallucinations, and violent outbursts?
In Thailand criminal trials are rare. Most people confess. So, no toxicology report will be entered into evidence. There will be no psychological observation results. There will be no testimony to be scrutinized. There will be no prior criminal or drug abuse evidence entered into the record.
No evidence whatsoever will be submitted because the police report and the confession are enough to put the person behind bars.
So, when someone claims they murdered their neighbor because they were high on weed, we have no idea if were even under the influence of marijuana. They could just be trying to avoid having another 5 - 13 years added to their sentence by confessing to using a drug that is legal instead of admitting to posession of a Category 1 narcotic (up to 10 years prison) and consumption (up to 3 years prison).
This is why the cannabis community needs to push harder on the idea of an evidence-based approach to cannabis.
The new cannabis law will come into effect long before people can be educated and opinions changed. The old guard in Thailand simply owns too many media outlets and there will always be people who want to use cannabis fear to grab the spotlight (I’m looking at you, Chuwit).
Our best option is to force the government to justify their proposal and ask the Minister of Public Health to show the sceince behind his recommendations.
Some are already doing that in regards to the government’s big announcement about treating 5 or less meth tablets as a minor crime.
Members of the Royal Thai Police have publicly called out the Minister of Public Health and demanded to know where the magic number of 5 pills came from since it didn’t come from them. Of course, no response from the minister.
Others have pointed at the proposed lenient treatment of people with less than 5 meth tablets compared to the proposed cannabis law which have harsh penalties for recreational cannabis use and asked how this is in any way justified. Some of the more legitimate media outlets like the Bangkok Post have made similar points in editorials.
Better yet, the prime minister has said he wants to eliminate recreational cannabis use, but why? Show the harm caused by recreational cannabis use. Let’s see the crime stats. Let’s see the health records of all these addictions and deaths attributed to cannabis.
The problem the anti-drug side has is that the facts are not in their favor and as Carl Sandburg once said, “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”
The prohibitionists have done a good job at pounding the table and yelling like hell. Now it’s time to argue the facts.
If the problem is that the government wants to push cannabis use out of the public spotlight by reducing the number of shops or making them less visible, why not enact laws that do that?
Or why not work with the cannabis community? Set up a hotline for shop owners to report other shops selling cannabis without a license or selling to minors. I can assure you, as someone that has spent enough time in Thailand, you’ll get way more shops snitching on each other than you’ll ever see cops busting shady shops.
It’s wildly naive to think that even if you make recreational use illegal, with all of the medicinal weed legally floating around, that tourists won’t find ways to get it.
Realistically, most people already qualify for medicinal cannabis. The WHO estimates that 4% of the world population suffers from anxiety, an ailment which cannabis seems to be effective in treating. 5% of the world population suffers from depression, another condition cannabis is seemingly effective in treating. Another 20% of the world population suffers from chronic pain, a condition very well suited for cannabis therapy. Or what about insomnia? Experienced by 30% - 50% of the world’s adult population and 10% suffer from chronic insomnia.
I’ll spare you going condition by condition, but even if you account for overlaps (ie people with anxiety often also have depression), probably 70% - 80% of the world has at least one qualifying condition that would be eligible for cannabis therapy.
What other drug is considered appropriate medical care for 70% - 80% of the world’s population but considered an illegal narcotic?
The government’s biggest problem is acknowledging cannabis has medicinal purposes because according to polls, Thai people overwhelmingly approve of medicinal cannabis.
Once they open that door, logically it follows that cannabis cannot be anywhere near as bad as they’re making it out to be.
Why are they not concerned about cannabis addiction for people using medicinal cannabis? To answer that, they have to admit there’s very little risk of addiction which destroys their argument that they need to limit recreational use to stop people from becoming addicted.
That’s how a science-based approach works. You can’t have these logical errors if you actually look at the science.
Ultimately, you don’t need to turn people into pro-cannabis advocates, you just need them to question whether or not the law will do what the politicians say it will.
Stay lifted and enlightened,
Don’t forget that we’ve partnered with some dispensaries for exclusive deals available to members of this newsletter and the r/CannabisThailand sub on Reddit. Just type “Dank Deal” into the comments of any post and the AutoMod will send you the current discounts being offered.
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