A year on from the delisting of cannabis as a Category 5 narcotic in Thailand, Sarah Reid explores how it has impacted the tourism experience—and how visitors can navigate it ethically.
Editor’s note: While cannabis has not technically been ‘decriminalized’, as some restrictions remain, we have used this term to avoid repetition with ‘removed from the narcotics list’ in line with other publications.
Neon cannabis leaves light the way as my taxi lurches towards Patong, the bright lights of Phuket having taken on a distinctly greener hue since my last visit. Known for its thumping nightlife centered on the go-go bars of Bangla Road, the hedonistic HQ of ‘Thailand’s sandbox’ isn’t exactly my idea of a good night out.
But if there’s one place in the Thai Kingdom to get a taste of how the decriminalization of cannabis last June has impacted the tourism experience, I figured this would be as good a place as any to start.
Easily identified by their lurid signage, the ‘dispensaries’ that have mushroomed in Patong and beyond can perhaps be better described as cannabis convenience stores, selling everything from buds (locally known as flowers) to brownies, CBD oil (a non-psychoactive compound in cannabis known for its calming properties) and cannabis-laced drinking water.
Sandwiched between two dispensaries on Patong’s party strip is a pharmacy, itself with a neon cannabis leaf in its window—a nod, perhaps, to the role of cannabis in traditional Thai medicine before the US put pressure on the Kingdom to pass its strict Narcotics Act in 1979 to stem the flow of marijuana into the US after the Vietnam War.
With mere possession of cannabis in Thailand being punishable by five years in prison just less than a year ago, it feels strange to experience this weed-friendly shift. Especially as a traveler hailing from Australia, a country in which marijuana remains a highly restricted substance.
While attitudes to cannabis within Thailand remain mixed, the delisting of cannabis as a narcotic—spearheaded by Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (who is also Thailand’s deputy prime minister)—has been welcomed by many.
Yet while cannabis is now as ubiquitous in the Kingdom as pad Thai—with more than 4,500 cannabis businesses listed on the website Weed in Thailand—the Thailand I revisit isn’t the seedy stoner haven some feared decriminalization would turn it into. Cannabis business signage can be a bit naff. But with smoking marijuana in public still technically illegal under Thailand’s hazy cannabis laws, most users go about their business discreetly.
While attitudes to cannabis within Thailand remain mixed, the delisting of cannabis as a narcotic—spearheaded by Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul (who is also Thailand’s deputy prime minister)—has been welcomed by many.
“It’s what Thailand needed to get past the pandemic,” says cannabis business owner Sebastian Karasek, who runs Lokal Apothecary on the same property as his family’s Lokal hotel in Patong. “In Thailand, we didn’t get government support during COVID, so it was pretty tough,” he explains. “Now cannabis has created new business opportunities, and another reason for tourists to come back.”
Indeed, cannabis is reportedly turbocharging Thailand’s 1THB billion (USD$29.6 million) wellness sector in the wake of the pandemic. Decriminalized earlier than THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis), CBD has now been harnessed by spas around the country, among them Anantara, one of the country’s first major hotel spas to introduce CBD treatments to its spa menus.
“Now we know more about the therapeutic benefits of CBD for health and wellbeing, particularly for stress management and sleep, people are more open to trying it,” explains Chunxia Gao, Group Director of Spa and Wellness at Minor Hotels, which counts Anantara among its brands.
Anantara works with a Thai manufacturer to create its FDA-approved cannabis spa products also available for sale, but with the regulation and enforcement of cannabis products in Thailand generally lacking, it can be difficult to know exactly what you’re purchasing at the average dispensary, and whether it’s even legal.
“As a consumer coming into our space, you can help us by asking where the flowers come from—are they Thai? Because if you don’t support us, the industry will go away.”
- Kitty Chopaka, cannabis advocate
To clear up confusion, Thailand’s tourism board released a guide for tourists in January. The 10-point need-to-know clarifies that edible cannabis products are only legally allowed to contain 0.2 percent of THC, but some dispensaries I visited sold cookies, gummies and other THC-infused edibles containing up to 50mg.
To put that figure into perspective, a standard unit of cannabis in the US is 5mg. While edibles-related tragedies are rare, common symptoms of an accidental overdose (which is more likely on edibles) including extreme anxiety and paranoia don’t make for a fun holiday.
Long-time cannabis advocate Kitty Chopaka, founder of Chopaka, a Bangkok-based company that specializes in cannabis terpene gummies, has bigger concerns, including the importation of cannabis products produced for the underground market that are compromising the fledgling local industry.
“It’s also more likely that human rights get violated within the production of the illicit market,” she says. Visitors, she adds, can be part of the solution. “As a consumer coming into our space, you can help us by asking where the flowers come from—are they Thai? Because if you don’t support us, the industry will go away.”
Rival political parties in Thailand are already warning of the dangers of unregulated cannabis, and threatening to recriminalize it, or at least restrict it to medical use, if they take power. Following the explosion of the cannabis industry during the past year, hitting the rewind button won’t be easy. Yet not so long ago, decriminalization seemed similarly unlikely. How long the high times continue in Thailand is now anybody’s guess.
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Sarah Reid is an award-winning travel writer, editor and author with a passion for positive-impact adventures and exploring underrated destinations. Her book credits include The Sustainable Travel Handbook, published by Lonely Planet.
