Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the biggest news in Thailand's economy that nobody is talking about. What do we mean here? Well as strange as this sounds, and I think that there are those out there that are like “oh he's just talking about this issue because that's what he does. He only talks about the issue of Cannabis.” Honestly, this is the biggest issue for Thailand in my mind economically, probably of this decade and I think when posterity looks back at what happened in this decade, it will look back if we as Thais all come together and form some coherent public policy on this through our Parliament etc., I think this could be a very good thing. But I think there are many things that Thais are not looking at with regard to Cannabis policy that they should be, especially right now. Let me dig into this.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Latest anti-Cannabis moves reflect political compromise not moral outrage. First of all, what is there to be morally outraged about with regard to Cannabis? I think that's a little hyperbolic. I don't think there's a lot of moral outrage that's going to go on about Cannabis. Strangely enough I think there's probably or at least possibly, moral outrage associated with things like gambling. In my time I've seen gambling destroy more lives than I've ever seen Cannabis destroy much of anything. Now that being said, were there's some lives that I've seen over the years that had way more potential than was fulfilled because those people perhaps were way too into Cannabis? Yeah, there's no doubt about that; I'm not saying Cannabis is perfect; I'm not running around out here one of these people that says it's the greatest healing drug of all time and it should be treated as some sort of frankincense and myrrh and we should all find it amazing. It is what it is. I look at it very much akin to alcohol or tobacco. It is something that has certain effects that could be deemed medicinal; it has certain effects that could be deemed intoxicating, if you will. So again, it's something that I think reasonable people can maybe disagree on but I think a reasonable society and I'll dig into this further, but I think it's well to point out up front, where I stand on this is regulation, not unlike tobacco and not unlike alcohol, we already deal with those. You never see anybody talking about “well can we allow for recreational use of alcohol?” because it does have medicinal properties as well. As I've discussed in prior videos, I think it's kind of a false dialectic, this medicinal/recreational.  We are adults. It should be regulated. No, children should not have it and those that sell to children whatever, you're going to have to face some serious stiff criminal penalties because if you sold knowingly especially, intentionally to someone underage, you should face legal consequences for that. But again, I'm talking about this in the context of reasonable adults, having it regulated, again not unlike tobacco and alcohol, and then sort of just dealing with it from that sort of reasonable perspective.

Meanwhile though there's an economic imperative here and one that I don't think is being driven home nearly enough. Thailand, however we've gotten here, has ended up in a position where it has first mover advantage over arguably the newest cash crop commodity to exist in international trade. I'm not naïve enough to think that Cannabis didn't exist prior to legalization here in Thailand. It's worth pointing out again, decriminalization, which we will get into here in a minute, there seems to be a disconnect between decriminalization and legalization; I'll get to that in a minute. The point I'm trying to make, sorry for digressing there, the point I'm trying to make is Thailand has first mover advantage with a cash crop that virtually no other jurisdiction, especially here in Asia, has the same ability to deal with due to their own legal constraints. Thailand does not have this problem. I don't think it's far out even to say that one day this product, Cannabis, could one day be, I'm not saying on par with but at least in the same wheelhouse if you will as rice for example, in terms of possible agricultural export capital coming into Thailand. Again, I'm not saying it's going to be nearly what rice is, but it could be in the same vein as rice has proven to be as an agricultural export product, this could be huge for Thailand, so getting it right now, while we're going through the process of drafting legislation through Parliament is imperative. So okay, quoting directly from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Latest anti-Cannabis moves reflect political compromise not moral outrage. Quoting directly: "Because the decriminalization of 2022..." - now again, sorry I sort of digressed on to that earlier. It was not decriminalized it was legalized, and again, I know I'm an outsider when it comes to Thai law but I do have a JD, I've engaged in Comparative Law in the past, from my understanding of basic notion of Civil Law which is the Doctrine of Codification, you want to make something illegal you have to codify it as illegal, otherwise it is legal. Now understandably it was an unorthodox way in which Anutin, Khun Anutin Charnvirakul, then Minister of Public Health was able to delist Cannabis as a narcotic basically utilizing emergency powers that he had at the time under the COVID "emergency" if you want to call it that. But long story short, he legalized it by pulling it off the list of criminal materials, criminal substances, and naming it a controlled herb. That made it legal, okay? So, it's constantly being referred to as decriminalized; that's a nonsensical word. Decriminalize means when police basically don't do their job and chase criminals for engaging in criminal activity. Legalization is what occurs when lawmakers make something legal or when something becomes legal by dint of the fact that it was pulled off the narcotics list, it was therefore legal. That's why we are having to go through the process of dealing with regulating it through Parliament. Quoting again: "Because the decriminalization of 2022 was not backed by detailed legislation.." - which by the way they were working on it and then certain parties basically torpedoed it, for their own, I don't know why. Quoting further: "..there has been a free-for-all market.." - well that is called a market. That's called entrepreneurialism; that's called a free market. It's very interesting that it's just gotten into the Zeitgeist of many, many people, the collective consciousness if you will, that “oh, if we don't have the Government involved, what are we all going to do?” Probably we will be all right, for the most part. As I have said before, other than frankly criminal penalties for children for selling to children I'm kind of okay on one level with just leaving it alone but on the other side of it, I do get regulation is generally speaking beneficial. Quoting further: "..and the technical restrictions on the psychoactive ingredient (THC) have been ignored." Well, and what's happened? Has it really been all that bad? Really? It looks to me like we're seeing a large number of tourists, as noted the green season, we're not seeing low seasons like we once saw here in Thailand. The low season is being buffered by people who want to be in Thailand and there is some evidence to suggest that those people are here because this product is now legal. So, are dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria, the sky falling because there's a free-for-all going on? I don't really see that. That said, quoting further: "The current Pheu Thai-led Administration fought the last election on an anti-cannabis platform.." - I didn't see that. I don't remember them running around, out way on the ramparts for anti-cannabis; I don't remember that. Quoting further: "..but now has to quieten its parliamentary "allies", in particular powerful Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and his Bhumjaithai Party which is the second-biggest partner in the current coalition. Anutin is not in favour of giving tourists a free ride," and I want to get back to that, "..but wants to protect his rural constituent farmers who grow Cannabis plants for profit." Yeah, he is protecting his constituents; that's what good politicians do. I mean I don't understand the politicians that get into National Office and then I don't know, roll out totalitarian tokens that will enslave all of us to a hyper-financialized control grid or people that come into office and then say: "First thing we're doing is putting Chinese Police on the streets!" I mean I kind of like the person, the old school politician polecat that just says "hey I've got constituents, they want X, I'm going to go ahead and try to get that for them." I thought that was how politics was done, but I'm naïve; that was what I thought how you did things. More to the point, the notion of "giving tourists a free ride". Two things are going on here and I know one thing really upsets the Thais, and foreigners, I can't stress this enough, you need to stop using this stuff outside. It really annoys the Thais. They don't like it; frankly, I don't like it. Find a place to go discreetly enjoy your Cannabis; especially people that are walking around with their kids and their families especially older folks here in Thailand, they smell it and it puts them off and I can't say that, I can understand the argument is what I'm saying. Meanwhile, the police have said in the past, at the end of the day we can cite you for nuisance for doing that. Maybe there should be some laws that say look you can you can use this in designated areas. Designated smoking rooms for example might not be a bad idea or Cannabis Lounges or something of this nature where that's the place where you go to enjoy that. But again, if I was walking around with a little kid or something, and somebody is puffing away on a big Bob Marley Special cigar or something, I don't want really a child around that. I can understand the nuisance side of that so the notions of tourists getting a free ride. But more to the point, and this is where I get back to this title, that this is the biggest economic issue nobody is talking about. Again Thailand, we have first mover advantage on a cash crop that nobody else in Asia can participate in the trade of. We are in the catbird seat economically. This is great, this is a good place to be and I'm sorry, I'm going to make some people probably very angry with me, but at the end of the day I am a naturalized Thai and I have to look at what I think is best for the country that adopted me. Quite honestly, the biggest issue nobody's talking about in all of this is that quite honestly foreigners shouldn't be in it, period. This should be a Thai exclusive domain. As I have discussed in other videos, one) it is agriculture. I think under the laws as they currently are set, foreigners shouldn't participate in the Cannabis trade at all nor anything associated with any other agriculture here in Thailand including things like Kratom, which got legalized right around the same time as Cannabis did. There are even now medicinal mushrooms that are now being how do I put it, they haven't been legalized, but they are now allowed for medicinal usage here in Thailand. Again, foreigners shouldn't be involved in any of this; this is agricultural product and more importantly and just across the board, this is one of those situations where what's good, for example the Cannabis space, is good for Thailand. Making sure that the Cannabis space is exclusively a Thai domain is the best thing that we can do under any iteration of any legislation associated with Cannabis here in Thailand. 

Now I'm really glad to see and I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in further detail because they will get into this sort of false medicinal versus recreational dialectic; they're kind of throwing that to the side when looking at drafting this legislation. I think that's a good idea, I do. I think that's a bad way to look at it. I don't think people should have to say that they have a medical problem in order to partake of Cannabis, if they are an adult and they are a consenting adult and they so choose to engage in that. Nobody asks if somebody's having a medicinal beer; that's just kind of nonsensical, or a medicinal cigarette, it's just kind of nonsensical. So again, reasonable adults can deal with their own health and what they imbibe on their own. Should the Government be out there to regulate it to some degree to make sure people don't get sick or die or something or don't take something that they don't understand what they are taking? I get that. Labeling on boxes, things like that - makes total sense. Again, keeping it from children makes total sense. 

One thing I think we have got to keep our eye on the ball here is at the end of the day, this should remain a Thai industry because this is something that I think can take Thailand into the future big time. I mean again this is Big Ag, Big Agriculture here that we're talking about; this is industrial level agriculture down the line and as noted in that, Mr. Anutin he has constituents that are farmers that profit from growing this product. I completely understand the political impetus behind him wanting to take care of those constituents and again, perhaps one of the best things that could be done to take care of those constituents and anybody else who is a Thai in the Cannabis space, is to make sure that that space remains Thai focused and Thai only in the future.