Transcript of the above video: 

So this is kind of an atypical video I'm going to do right here. It's more kind of a broad just, some would call it a rant, whatever, sort of discussion about what's going on here. This is kind of a general piece insofar as since COVID, we have just let our Governments around the world get away with nonsense and we need to stop it. Enough is enough. You don't just get to make everything up and just say "because we say so" or spew some nonsense gobbledygook and a bunch of charts and say, "oh now you have to do this, even though we haven't gone through any legislative due process, there have been no laws passed. We have inherent liberties as Thais here in Thailand, as Americans in America, as people around the world in terms of Human Rights. They are just basic things people should be allowed to do. 

Now in prior videos, and this video does not really get into Cannabis, but I talked about it in other videos when throughout the last couple of years is the Government, various bureaucrats, have tried to say, "oh these are new guidelines regarding Cannabis", or "this is a new mandate or whatever". It's not a law and when Anutin legalized this utilizing Emergency Power to pull this off the narcotics control list, he set parameters. He can't sell to people under 20, you can't sell to pregnant women. Other than that, you have got to get this Controlled Herb Licence but you can set up shop and you can sell this product. I had concerns down the line when they started saying, "well we are going to start regulating this, that, and the other thing", because I said well what keeps them from them saying, "Oh if you're a florist we can tell you how many flowers you can put in a bouquet and thigs of that nature? It can happen. It is not a slippery slope argument; it's a direct logical argument.  If they can just say, “oh this plant, because we say so, we can say you can only possess x amount or you can only transfer X amount from one person to another” - if they can say that without the foundation of law, then what are we doing? The Doctrine of Codification in a Civil Law system as we have in Thailand, dictates that if you want to make something illegal you need to codify it in law and put it through the legislature; in this case the Parliament here in Thailand, and go through all due process to make that illegal, or to regulate it. You can't just say, "because we say so, something is illegal." Now people sort of said, "oh well that's a far-fetched argument." Is it? Well guess what?

This is from the Thai Enquirer that's @ThaiEnquirer on X, quoting directly, and the reason for the thumbnail has to do with the title here: Police Raid Illegal Orange Juice Factory. What does that mean? "Illegal orange juice factory". Really now? We're treating people who are making orange juice like Pablo Escobar? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Seize two tons of Chinese orange pulp. So that's the reason for the thumb is it's Tony Soprano. It's a great scene from The Sopranos where he walks outside, and he's talking to his wife and he says, "hey this thing says it has pulp in it." She says, "you like pulp." He says, "I like the kind that says some pulp." and then she throws the phone at him because she's so mad at him. That's the reason for the thumbnail, but again orange pulp? And don't get me wrong, I have got all kinds of issues with illegal trade and things but, orange pulp? Now the government is getting up in our business about orange pulp?  Quoting directly: "Police raided an illegal orange juice production site" - an illegal orange - do we not have better things to do than this? Honestly, this is a very low priority thing, at least from where I sit, okay? Quoting further: "An illegal orange juice production site and warehouse in Bangkok on Wednesday, seizing more than two tonnes of canned orange pulp allegedly imported from China without Customs clearance or Thai Food and Drug Administration approval." - okay, that's alleged, and it's orange pulp. How do you even prove that? Okay, maybe packaged or something, I don't know, I wasn't there. But I have serious qualms with, now we're doing raids on people's orange pulp? Quoting further: "The searches at a company and an unnumbered warehouse in Soi On Nut 66, Prawet district, found 112 cartons containing 672 cans of imported orange pulp weighing 2,016 kilogrammes. Officers also seized bottled fruit juice in various sizes made from the pulp and discarded cans linked to production." It's written like this is a heroine den; it's orange pulp, it's orange juice. I actually thought of the thumb being from the movie Trading Places by the way, and the scene where they tried to corner the frozen orange juice market because this is just as absurd to me, like we are really getting that serious about orange pulp. 

By the way, while I am thinking about it, my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. The name is Pancake Palace, as the name implies, breakfast anytime. We have orange juice. Now we have to kind of run things these days, on a kind of a speakeasy model, so if you come in to Pancake Palace you want some orange juice, kind of say it on the sly because we have got to be careful with how we bring in our orange juice supply to our place; so we have got to be careful with that. But that said, we have also got American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, buffalo wings, chicken wings. We have got hot dogs, chilli dogs, we have got grilled cheese sandwiches, we have got Coke in glass bottles; we also have an open bar for adult beverages. If you are interested, come on down to Pancake Palace. We have even got orange juice in spite of the fact that there are heavy crackdowns. Man, I mean the street price of orange pulp is up. I don't know if anybody is aware, but this is heavy times for those orange juice drinkers out there here in Thailand. So, if you are interested, come on by the Pancake Palace. 

That being said, let's quote some more from this. A company director admitted using the pulp to produce bottled orange juice for sale." Oh my God! A guy was making orange juice to sell? Would he be selling it on the street? Oh! I have got another video coming up where we are talking about how the international bankers have problems with the gray economy and now they want everybody to tell them about any amount of money that comes in over 5 million baht. They could be using this to buy orange juice. Oh, good golly. 

Quoting further: "With production carried out at night and deliveries made during the day according to customer orders police said." I mean they are talking about this like they are delivering packets of cocaine or something. It's orange juice for God's sake. Quoting further: "She was unable to provide Customs clearance documents or evidence of Thai FDA approval." The supply chains to bring in the orange juice to the street vending Thais. Do they have certification for their fruit? Come on, come on! I understand if this really is some kind of, they are smuggling in orange juice, there's a customs issue with that, fine, that is what it is. But I do not like that this is being made into some kind of, "well we have got to find the supply chain of this." It reminds me of the scenes in the show The Americans where Oleg Burov goes back, he leaves the Foreign Service and he goes back to KGB and he's working in Moscow and he has to go around, and his big investigation is to go to the grocery stores and figure out who's getting better produce? It's Communist, Socialist, Soviet nonsense. We're tracking orange juice in Thailand now?

Again, I understand if there is a legitimate Customs violation going on here, but really, are the fruit vendors on the Thai streets and the guys that are selling bottled orange juice now going to have to show sourcing documentation? I mean at what point do we get these bureaucrats out of free enterprise? Thailand was built on liberty and free enterprise; that is why I like it here. The street economy is a real economy and this is what we are dealing with now? Orange pulp? And they are talking about it like we are talking about tonnes of heroin or cocaine. I mean what is this? This is ridiculous. "Police charged her under Section 246 of the Customs Act with handling goods allegedly linked to a customs offense under Section 242."  Man that is pretty frickin' tenuous; for orange juice? Again, I don't know what the packaging on it was, where it's clear that maybe it came from some place else and there was a customs violation. But if we are just talking a bunch of orange pulp sitting around in cans in a warehouse somewhere, how do they know that that it didn't come from Thailand? And now it's on this woman to prove it up? How can anybody expect to do business in an environment like that? Again, a fruit vendor now? Does he have to have a piece of paperwork for every single fruit, half a pineapple he sells to a guy on the street for 15 baht? Quoting further: "The offense carries up to 5 years in prison, a fine of four times the value of the goods including duty, or both." For orange pulp. Again, if it is clearly provable that this came from overseas and there is a customs violation, I guess that is a problem. What worries me about this is now, what, if you have got a bunch of orange pulp sitting around in your premises in a warehouse somewhere, that gives the Thai Police some kind of cause to then presume you are a criminal?

Again, this started with the logic that they could say whatever they wanted when it came to "regulating" the Cannabis industry, and now we are over here in a situation where guys are going down for orange pulp possession. It's really spooky stuff. I really hope folks that are in a policy making position get a better perspective and maybe start looking to go after things that are actually problematic for Thailand rather than this kind of nonsense.