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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing fearmongering in the context of Cannabis. I thought about making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that is thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Emergency Room admissions for Cannabis up 566% as parties call for it to again be criminalized. Okay, a couple of things. This notion of re-criminalization, I'll get into it in a minute but I think it's pretty strange. Again Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, quoting directly: "Emergency room admissions from marijuana consumption rose by 566%, a rapid change in 2022 with Cannabis delisted as an illicit narcotic in June. Last year 3% of all Emergency Room admissions to Thai hospitals were linked to Cannabis or Marijuana ingestion."

A couple of key observations here, okay. Last year, when there was 3% ER admissions it wasn't legal. It was on the narcotics list. People weren't as interested in it, there wasn't all this Press field day over it so quite honestly it is sort of like saying we had a five hundred fold increase from zero, there is nowhere to go but up is my only point. Yes there was probably going to be some major societal blowbacks to a major change such as this. Meanwhile, I really question these 500, these people, not getting too deep into this because obviously I am not a medical professional or anything of that nature but it is my understanding, you don't die from Cannabis consumption. It's just, I hesitate to say it's impossible, but it's my understanding it is pretty close to virtually impossible. Now I don't know, there may be new variants or new sort of creations they have come up with out there that might do that but there are drugs that will kill you, I shouldn't even use the word "drugs" but there are substances out there that will kill you if you take enough of it. Again this doesn't say deaths are up 566%, it says Emergency Room admissions and again one would presume there would be a massive probably orders of magnitude increase of Emergency Room admissions on a product that prior to last year was not something that was on the open market and now it is. So I'm not calling out Thai Examiner particularly per se, they're just kind of indicative of, I have seen this in other forums out there on the internet and things of this kind of fearmongering surrounding it, I would like to think I am more, I guess, full disclosure, try to expose my bias, I like to think I am more of a pragmatist about it. I truly view this thing as a commodity which could substantially help Thailand's economy and it hasn't been readily available and quite honestly I think the restrictions on this from any standpoint you look at it, is an artificial restriction. There is the notion of malum in se, malum prohibitum in law, there's a difference between something that is at its core wrong, sort of morally wrong for lack of a better term and then there are things that are just wrong because the law says they are wrong. I just don't see a high level, I don't see a major moral argument you can make against this, the developments that have occurred and when I say that, that's my main reason for not wanting re-criminalization. I don't see how that helps anyone. I think it was truly kind of an absurdity and a travesty that there was anybody sitting around in a jail because of possession or because of anything having to do with consumption of these products or of this commodity. I just don't think it's warranted and I don't think it's particularly good for anyone, for the society as a whole, for the economy, for anybody. 

So where does that leave us? Well it leaves us where I have been talking about. We need to regulate this thing because at the end of the day it is not just a snap and a click of one's heels to make this illegal again. That would have to be done through new legislation which I don't see is going to happen in a political context. I definitely don't see where the economy wants it; I definitely think a lot of, not to get too deep into the politics, I know there's something of a pushback politically and sometimes there are issues that is kind of easy to be “conservative” on because people just have kind of a knee jerk reaction. I think in a political context this is in a sense an outsider's observation, I think being heavily against this or maybe I should say being in favor of re-criminalization is probably not the right move right now in a political context because there have been a lot of constituencies that have been positively impacted by this change in legislation. There are a lot of farmers out there who are benefiting from this, a lot of folks in the tourism sector, I mean people that were really, really worn down by the two and a half years of shutdown that this country had to go through. Those people are benefiting and those people are presumably voters and I just don't see where any politician is going to want to get in front of something that is benefiting people in the economy and people in society in a very meaningful way. I just don't see where that is a real prudent idea to come in and say no we are reversing all that. Do you really want to be standing on the hustings at the election and having to explain that because I think there is a constituency out there that is pretty happy that things are playing out the way that they are.

Now that said, as I have said before I think the way to go on this, it's regulation and it is set up to be regulated so let's do that. I absolutely agree with the notion that children have to be kept away from this. This is just like anything, it's like alcohol, underage people cannot consume it. Good, that would be great; let's get some regulation so we can do that but to run around and just kind of fearmonger about all of this and I have seen multiple reports, again I am not pointing out this one particular news outlet, it just kind of to me summed up everything that has been kind of swirling here. I could call out multiple other News platforms and things that have been kind of reporting on this in an almost fearmongering, well in a fearmongering manner in some instances, I don't think it's wise politically but okay my opinion is kind of irrelevant that's not why I have this channel. Legally speaking, as a pragmatic way to deal with this, I think regulation is a way better way to go than trying to expend political capital and use of a bunch of time and resources trying to recriminalize something that clearly can have major benefits for Thai society.