Transcript of the above video: 

I have got some more news on the Cannabis front here in Thailand. There are a number of folks very irate over the way the Government has in a very arbitrary and capricious manner just been kind of in my opinion, rather flippantly disregarding the legitimate concerns of legitimate entrepreneurs here in Thailand that have their documentation - their licenses and things - for Cannabis and Cannabis Businesses and the way they have been sort of disregarded, and their concerns disregarded in the way in which this government at least, what I am currently sort of calling the "Rump Coalition" Government, has been acting with regard to those entrepreneurs. 

I thought of making this video initially after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Pro Cannabis group wants Somsak axed. Quoting directly: "A Cannabis Policy advocacy group, Writing Thailand's Cannabis Future Network, submitted a petition to the Government complaint centre at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday calling for the dismissal of Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin." Quoting further: "The group claimed that Mr. Somsak's crackdown on marijuana favoured certain Cannabis Business Groups while causing widespread harm across the industry. The group accused Mr. Somsak of violating the ethical code for politicians, citing alleged misconduct such as disregarding principles of justice, repeatedly meeting with specific cannabis business groups, withholding key information on licensing standards, and fostering division among licensed operators by favouring some." Yeah, and as I brought up before, these people, this is not like this is just a group of people who just were selling cannabis and are mad now that things have changed. They had licenses; they detrimentally relied on those licenses insofar as they invested money, time, resources, set up businesses, and then with the changing of the Government where Bhumjaithai became part of the opposition - shortly after the phone call between the now suspended Prime Minister and Mr. Hun Sen on the other side of the Cambodian border - in the aftermath of that, Mr. Thepsuthin just sort of came out and started just in my opinion as I called it at the time, arbitrarily and capriciously and in my opinion also in clear contravention of the Doctrine of Codification - I was about to think in an Immigration Attorney's context - the Doctrine of Codification, basically just sort of said, "oh well, we are just going to change these things". And as they note in the two articles I am citing here, they didn't even provide a grace period. They just went and did it, and there has been heavy substantially detrimental fallout to folks in the industry and again these are people who are law-abiding citizens. They went and got their licenses to do these things. They weren't just doing things half-cocked; they were doing it right and then they got the rug pulled out from underneath them or I'm sure that is how they feel. That said, quoting further: Quote: "The network and members of the Cannabis Community urge the PM to consider replacing the Minister by appointing someone with knowledge, competence and a commitment to good governance -- to restore public trust and end the harm to Cannabis entrepreneurs," the group said." 

Then quoting also from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, from the article titled: Weed Network still fuming. "The Writing Thailand's Cannabis Future Network on Tuesday filed a petition with the National Anti-corruption Commission to probe Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin and other officials for issuing the latest Cannabis regulations to please investors rather than small-scale growers." Quoting further: "The criteria of the certifications and the sources of cannabis are never announced, and thus, only a few are ever granted." Yeah so they get into and I urge those who are watching this video, go check out both of those articles. That certification is pertaining to the again in many, I think it is not unreasonable to at least question the arbitrariness and capriciousness of just issuing these requirements and then saying, "oh you need to buy only from these specially certified growers” and not giving all the growers sort of a heads up about this, a grace period, some idea of how the certification process worked. Again, it was all sort of rolled out without any prior knowledge and these folks seem to be alleging that it was done to favour certain groups over others. Quoting further: "The complaint addressed cannabis growers, many of whom have held legal licenses and have been operating under the 2022 regulation. They now find that their products are unsellable, resulting in major losses for small businesses and communities." Well my question is again apropos of what law are they doing this? Especially where licenses have been affirmatively issued. Quoting further: "The regulation will also take immediate effect upon publication in the Royal Gazette, without allowing time for adaptation for the nearly 20,000 licensed shops, the network noted. The pro cannabis Network also accused the Minister of unethical conduct due to his association in certain business groups in public and a lack of transparency, which limited access to economic opportunities for growers." 

Again, my whole thing with this has just been the sort of flippant nature of saying, “hey we can just do this”. I mean people think because it's cannabis it's like more sexy or something. I don't know. What if they just said overnight “hey florists, you all now need to buy your flowers from one particular flower grower, and we are not going to tell you in advance or give you a grace period to deal with that in your supply chain. We are just going to throw that on you overnight and if you don't do it, you are subject to fines and penalties and all kinds of problems”. Nobody would be for that in that context, and it's not an over exaggeration, that's not some kind of straw man argument, that's really quite similar to what is happening here. It's just happening in the context of cannabis which is an agricultural product as opposed to floral flower arrangements or something. Again it is very similar. 

I did a video where I talked about that and how this was a true danger and what worries me, as I have also discussed is one, this arbitrary and capriciousness could result in frankly an undermining of the confidence in one's ability to invest in Thailand based on certainty about rules and regulations. And also again it just it just lacks, in my opinion, credibility with regard to legislative due process. I mean they said a year and a half ago they were going to pass a law through Parliament before they did anything with this, and they haven't done it. My question is why?