Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing cannabis yet again in Thailand. We discussed in a prior video that there had been a number of vendors that had been arrested in Thailand, specifically here in Bangkok because they had been operating a cannabis store basically a vendor, dispensary, a vending outlet without any type of a license. And as we discussed in that prior video, there were also folks that were using trucks and as pointed out in that video, it's not really possible to sell legally, to sell cannabis via a truck because in order to get a license you need to have a fixed physical address. So again, we have discussed that previously but now there seems to be further developments.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, that is bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Weed vendors sentenced. This is a follow-up to another article that we read and discussed in a prior video, again about folks that got arrested. Quoting directly, I am going to quote a very short excerpt in this video. I urge those who are watching this video, go read that article in detail, lots of good information in there. Quoting directly: "Six vendors in the Thong Lor area arrested for violating cannabis and hemp control regulations were sentenced to 2 months in jail, suspended for 2 years and fined 5,000 Baht each" So again that is a criminal conviction. Presumably all these folks in were Thais. I don't know where this would have gone if this would have been a foreigner although I suspect probably would have had at least some different nuances associated with it most notably there are immigration implications for convictions of a crime in Thailand so the conviction itself would have been grounds in and of itself for deportation. So again, foreigners would interact with this very differently than would native Thais, local Thais who are going to be dealing with this system. Long story short and the thing to understand and something that I don't think a fine point was put on when the discussion was being sort of bandied about, about whether or not Cannabis should be recriminalized, I think the implication was "oh if it is not recriminalized, there's not going to be any sort of criminal consequences, repercussions if you will associated with operating outside of the rules pertaining to Cannabis, Cannabis sales and growth here in Thailand. 

Well this article in my opinion really puts that entire argument to bed because quite frankly this if anything shows that yeah in fact obviously Thai law enforcement is going to be able to discern differences in regulation; they are going to be able to see who has got their license, who is doing things legally and again this is one of my primary reasons, one of the big reasons in my mind, we need to get away from the whole notion of re-criminalization. The better way to deal with this is regulation and yes there could be criminal consequences for those who violate the regulations here in Thailand. 

So the thing to take away from this video is long story short, yes Cannabis has been legalized here in Thailand. We are still kind of dealing with the nuts and bolts of how this is going to work but for the economic reasons, I think not only is re-criminalization unlikely, I think it's also not in any way a good idea. It'll end up costing resources to the state in order to deal with the illegalization and it doesn't bring in any tax revenue like it currently does. Meanwhile, yes there do need to be regulations and there do need to be consequences for people who violate those regulations and again I think this article shows that that can occur under a regulatory framework.