Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing foreigners being targeted in the Thai Cannabis sector. What are we talking about here? Well I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that is thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Buriram cannabis factory raided for illegal Vietnamese staff as drug czar declares a new regime. Yeah, first of all, drug czar? There is no drug czar, okay? There's the head of the Office of Narcotics Control and by the way I thought cannabis was not going to be named a narcotic, and on top of that, I thought we weren't going to go into this where "oh it's because we say so." They're talking about these regulations and things before we even have a promulgated law. I thought that's what we weren't going to do. And I'll get into that in further detail in another video.

That said one thing that's been talked about and going back - Anutin talked about this some months ago - there was concerns foreigners being involved in the Cannabis sector. Remember cannabis generally pertains to landownership, it generally pertains to agriculture. Those are two things that are heavily restricted here in Thailand. Again on top of that, I'm not real happy about this continued push of this 'we're just going to do it regulatorily' even without a promulgated Act. I mean why? Why can't you just let Parliament make the law and then operate from there? This overreach into people's inherent ability to make their own living, and by the way there's 9,400 Cannabis shops, perfectly legal, operating right now and all this talk is really I would think be making these folks nervous because it sounds a lot like they're just trying to impose a because we say so kind of "regime" on those people. That said, going to the foreigners specifically, quoting directly: "Buriram cannabis factory raided, 24 illegal workers arrested. New Cannabis crackdown follows UK Ambassador's warning on drug smuggling and looming stricter Thai regulations..." Last I checked, the UK did not colonize Thailand. Why is the UK Ambassador chiming in on this? Who cares what that person has to say?  I care as much what that person has to say as I did what the Chinese Ambassador had to say about putting Chinese cops on our streets. Why do all these foreigners come in and think that they get the right to tell the Thais what to do all the time? Quoting further: "...on production and distribution. Penalties include up to 15 years in prison." How are there penalties if there's not a promulgated law? Quoting further: "The government, while it is planning" - while it is planning a new law - "to regulate Cannabis use without proscribing it.." yeah, as we have discussed, they are not going to get in this “recreational use” nonsense anymore, which to their credit, to their credit, that was well thought out. Quoting further: "…is also enforcing regulations in other ways." You mean illegally? What other ways? Pass the law, then issue the regulations. Quoting further: "Last week, a Cannabis processing factory in Buriram was raided for having illegal workers on its premises." Well if that that's the other ways you're talking about enforcing the laws against foreigners operating in these businesses to begin with, okay fair enough. Quoting further: "An Immigration Bureau unit raided a rented factory in the Nong Ki District of Buriram. Police officers with Immigration Bureau Division 4 found 24 Vietnamese nationals in addition to six Thai workers. One of the Vietnamese was Mr. Kim Dong Dang. Following questioning and examination of the identification documents of all staff, the Police discovered that the Vietnamese were in Thailand based on a 60-day Tourist Visa. In short, all the Vietnamese were arrested for working illegally in the country." Yeah, well it sounds about right. 

As we discussed in other videos, Cannabis pertains to agriculture. I suspect when we do finally see a promulgated law on this, although I'm really, really not particularly happy seeing this ongoing push from these bureaucrats with their 'just because we say so' rules. Again pass a law through Parliament; create regulations therefrom, fair enough. But just this 'we have a new regime because we say so', that's nonsensical to me. 

That said, foreigners working illegally in Thailand, foreigners engaging in restricted occupations especially, as it pertains to Cannabis, yeah that's clearly within the Government's remit to do something about. That being said, it remains to be seen exactly what this new law is going to look like so we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as this situation evolves.