Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Cannabis yet again; there has been some news in that sphere. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Bangkok Post that's bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Cannabis loopholes to be closed. First off, I am so sick of that word "loopholes".  Laws are laws. I love how when the Press doesn't like something, it's a "loophole" but when they are really in favour of it, it's the law and everybody should respect the law, but when it's something they don't like it is a loophole that needs to be closed. I also like these notions that being free is a loophole. Having just basic freedom to, in this context, decide if you want to utilize cannabis or use cannabis or not, which by the way having been here for the last year since this has massively changed, the sky has not fallen; dogs and cats are not living together; there is not mass hysteria because Cannabis is now legal in Thailand. I can state that objectively having observed this lo this past year.

Again, the article is titled:  Cannabis loopholes to be closed, Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. Quoting directly: "We will not shut down all Cannabis shops, but they need to comply with the law. The new law will not allow them to sell cannabis buds for people to smoke or even have equipment for customers to smoke inside their shops. In the past, we could not control the usage, (control the usage) but with the new law, using Cannabis for recreational purposes will be prohibited." So quoting further: "When asked if smoking Cannabis at home will be illegal, he said that remains a remains a grey area pending more public feedback." And then going over here to the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand's 6000 marijuana shops can stay open if they behave themselves. I love these nanny minders in this world that, "well you can stay open if you operate the way that we think you should da, da, da!" So again, Thailand’s 6,000 marijuana shops can stay open if they behave themselves. Quoting directly: "Everyone agrees that the current legal situation in Thailand, since decriminalization," that's not the word, it's legalization. Decriminalization is a nonsense word; I am sick of that word. What does that mean? There either is a law or there is not. There isn't one, or you are not enforcing the law which in my opinion is even worse. Quoting further: "Everyone agrees that the current legal situation in Thailand since decriminalization of the plant last year, is a free-for-all as various businesses entered the sector with little regulatory guidance or oversight." Have the skies fallen? Are dogs and cats living together in mass hysteria since Cannabis legalization? Not really, honestly. Yeah and I have seen some stories out there where some folks were using these shops as a front and they were selling other illegal drugs. Good, get them, get them. Go arrest those people. They shouldn't be doing that. I don't want hard narcotics, hard drugs in my country. That's a bad idea, that's terrible. That said, where are these people coming from that just seem to not like freedom? I get it. You don't want to smoke Cannabis; there are people that don't like Cannabis, they don't enjoy it, they don't think it's a good thing, they don't want it. Okay. There are people who feel the same way about alcohol. Where are the calls for the ban on alcohol, which was a terrible idea to begin with? We did it in America. It was a thing called "prohibition"; created organized crime everywhere; resulted in just tons of needless bureaucracy and just a bad overall policy but again back to this whole thing, it's like this obsession with well "we don't want recreational", and I've noticed in some newer articles they have said, look this recreational thing, it's kind of a gray area but we are going to regulate content, THC content and all this stuff. Fine. Setting that aside though, just philosophically, what is people's problem with just “live and let live”? If people enjoy it; I do get the not wanting people smoking in public. That totally makes sense to me. But people who buy this product and take it home and consume it in the privacy their own home and basically that is what they enjoy, if they are not hurting anybody, why do you care? And by the way, I have noticed there has been a lot of hyperbole out there trying to connect this to the ills of the world and it's not really working because at the end of the day, it's observable. I think everybody that's here in Thailand can see that notwithstanding all the hype, it's really not been a big deal. I mean there is just more commercial real estate is being rented. I'm sure the landlords of Thailand are probably somewhat happy with this change in the law. I don't think it's quantifiable but I think that there has definitely been an uptick in tourists who come here because it intrigues them.

It's sort of like how Amsterdam was. I was growing up, going through college and things and thinking: "oh you can go to Amsterdam because you can buy cannabis there and that is a cool neat thing." And I am sure there are young people coming out to Thailand thinking somewhere along the lines of the same thing. Now again, I've always loved Thailand because of what I have often referred to as 'conservative tolerance'. Thais are highly very, very, very conservative; in fact they are orders of magnitude more conservative than even back home, back in Kansas or any place I lived back in the United States but they are highly tolerant and I know this is hard for Westerners to understand but that's a good thing. I like the way the Thais have handled this quite honestly. It reminds me of the way they handle other sort of vice related things as they say, "look, we are going to put it in a certain box; you can't sell to children." Look you want my opinion for legislation on this is basically the status quo, it's what we have right now plus literally criminal penalties, heavy criminal penalties for those who sell to children. That to me is the priority and tax, gathering of tax revenue. Those two things are the priorities. All of this nanny state notion of "we want to make sure nobody is using it for recreational," or "we don't want", that's none of your business. Why does it matter? Again if nobody is hurting anybody, it shouldn't matter. So again, taxation and keeping it out of the hands of kids, those should be the priorities in my opinion moving forward.