Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Cannabis yet again. As those who have been avid viewers of this channel may be aware, when I am talking about Cannabis, we've had some discussion recently about the somewhat absurd notion that there has been this "massive explosion of psychiatric problems" in Thailand since the legalization of Cannabis. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thaiger, that is T H A I G E R, that's thethaiger.com, the article is titled: Cannabis decriminalization not linked to rise in psychiatric patients. First off, can we please stop using the term decriminalization; that's not what occurred here. It's legal, it's legalized. Decriminalization means police aren't doing their job, they're not enforcing the law. Legalization means there is no law against something. Quoting further: "Professor Panthep Puapongphan, Dean of the College of Oriental Medicine at Rangsit University addressed misinformation about an alleged increase in psychiatric patients following the decriminalization of Cannabis since June 9, 2022. His comments came in response to claims suggesting that this legal change has led to a surge in psychiatric issues. Quoting further: Quote from him: "The data clearly shows that the number of psychiatric patients has not increased due to Cannabis decriminalization. In fact we see a reduction in cases related to other more harmful substances." So this whole notion that Bt.20 billion has been expended since the legalization of Cannabis in Thailand because thousands of people were having psychiatric events that needed dealt with, apparently it's not the case, at least according to this professor from the College of Oriental Medicine at Rangsit University, it doesn't seem to be the case. 

I always thought 20 billion Baht spent on this sounded a little high, especially in light of the fact that it was only Bt.1 billion they were talking about some years ago that was being extracted in terms of costs, in expense of time and resources from hospitals having to deal with foreigners who were dying in Thailand, primarily retirees. So the notion that people are spending 20 times that in psychiatric expenses associated with Cannabis sounded pretty ludicrous to me when I first heard it, and I am happy to hear that it probably is not exactly in line with the reality.

Again I have really been sort of flabbergasted by the antics of those who really just seem to hate Cannabis and I don't know why. It's like, well I could surmise some guesses, but it really seems to be an almost irrational kind of hatred. I mean originally they said "oh people are going to die associated with Cannabis!” Nobody really did. I mean there might have been some instances that involved somebody who might have been under the influence who happened to die. Well how many alcohol cases does that involve on a daily basis, so there's that. Then when really the whole narrative of it's killing people didn't stick, then they threw up their hands and said "oh psychiatric problems!" Well as I pointed out, I am not really interested in listening to a bunch of shrinks tell us what is good for us at this point. We had enough of that during COVID where they told us shutting down the economy and doing everything that they said in some totalitarian manner was good for us and guess what? It wasn't. So I find it interesting that on this topic, this whole notion of this explosion of psychiatric problems may not actually be rooted in fact.