Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing 'Foreigners in the Cannabis space here in Thailand should be careful'. I am going to go ahead and quote an article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: The highs and lows of liberalizing weed. Now we have quoted this in another context. In this particular context, this article is very in-depth, it is long. I am going to quote a small excerpt on this one particular topic but the thrust of that overall article is pretty broad, a lot of information in there if you are interested in this, but I think this is very, very important for foreigners to understand because I think a lot of foreign nationals here in Thailand are kind of frankly wandering around in the Cannabis space thinking it is one thing and not understanding the ground that they are on, in a legal sense. 'Ground that they are on' probably isn't the right metaphor; 'the thin ice that they are on'. This is not me trying to be unnecessarily cautious; this is not me trying to scare anyone. I get burned for that from time to time; people say that is what I'm trying to do, not my intention. People also know because I have disclosed it on this channel, yes we have interests in the Cannabis space; I have a license associated with Cannabis here in Thailand primarily for what's going to end up being legal work associated with that industry is I think what will ultimately be the case in the longer long term. I don't have any desire to be involved in the retail side of that or anything, so full disclosure again, yeah. 

This is not me sort of pitching my own book or trying to do anything like that, my point is again I have seen this cycle occur in multiple different contexts in 15 years here in Thailand. I especially see it a lot in the Immigration space because quite honestly a lot of foreign nationals become very complacent or cavalier about Thai Law and don't understand a) how the system works and b) how it could impact them very fundamentally. So I want to go ahead and read this article, again, the article is titled: The highs and lows of liberalizing weed, Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com. Quoting this small excerpt directly: "The lack of clarity also opens up a loophole for foreign investors to open Cannabis ventures in Thailand. They have not been slow to take advantage of the opportunity, with most Cannabis Businesses in downtown Chiang Mai owned by foreigners." That is hyperbolic, I don't think that is necessarily true. In fact if you look at the documentation I am sure associated with these enterprises, you are looking at a situation where it is a minority interest that is being maintained by foreigners here in Thailand.

Now the point of this excerpt, I am going to read it again and I want to make this clear. Quoting: "The lack of clarity also opens up a loophole for foreign investors to open Cannabis ventures in Thailand." I think that sentence is very important because it is indicative of an overarching paradigm that foreign nationals are really not understanding here. Cannabis, for good or ill is being legalized in Thailand primarily as a mechanism to gain Thai prosperity, economic prosperity. This is most assuredly not being created to benefit foreign nationals. Quite honestly, I anticipate in the longer term this becoming extremely regulated to the point of being highly restrictive against foreign nationals. In fact right now, as we have discussed in other videos if you go back to the Section 44 decrees I have made on this topic and everything, quite honestly most foreign nationals I would imagine and I am purely speculating here, but I would imagine that a lot of them that are already not in compliance with relevant law. It is just we are kind of sitting here in a holding pattern at the moment with the sort of end of this Parliament, or the imminent end of this Parliament going into election season, and then we are going to see a new Parliament, we are going to see what they are going to do. 

The long story short is if I am a foreign national here and I am trying to be involved in the Cannabis space, do not get complacent. This is not going to be, in my opinion I do not believe that it is going to look like this in the longer term. Again, this is not me trying to scare people or maybe it is to a certain degree but if it is me trying to scare people, it's me trying to kind of scare people into waking up that 'hey if there is sort of a reckoning on this, it could be very detrimental to foreigners operating in this space.' And understand, again this has not been set up to create some kind of international hub for foreign nationals to come and do their business in this space here, that is not the purpose. Now down the road that may be end up being an ancillary thing that occurs as a byproduct of the thrust of these policies but the reason these policies are being brought out, at least in my opinion, is to benefit Thailand, to benefit Thai people. So I would probably if I was somebody that was looking into this, or I was somebody presently in the space that is a foreign national in Thailand, it is probably a good idea to view this as something of a fleeting anomaly and not as the norm that we are going to see moving forward. Now that being said, what this looks like moving forward remains to be seen but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.