Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing well it might not be abundantly clear exactly what we are discussing other than Cannabis Policy here in Thailand. For those who are unaware, it has been a very interesting year with regard to Cannabis Policy here in Thailand most notably back in June, major changes to the list of narcotics here in Thailand and there has been a lot of attempted legislation, I think it's interesting because I think there's a lot of misnomers going on here. Now we are going to discuss very, we are going to kind of glaze over politics which is not something I really love doing on this channel but it does have legal implications and this has been such a major news item, especially it seems to be especially concerning to certain foreigners out there that are looking to come to Thailand because they want to know what's going on and they're worried, they don't want to run afoul of Thai Law and that is good, I think that is a good sentiment to have.

Understand as of the time of this video, nothing has really changed from the past few weeks. there has just been a lot of sort of I don't know how you would call it, kind of political machinations going on but it's enough that it has kind of percolated up into the major media outlets which brings me to this, the reason I thought of making this video which comes from Thai PBS World, thaipbsworld.com, the article is titled: Opposition will ask EC to dissolve Bhumjaithai Party over its liberal Cannabis Policy. This whole thing is starting to feel like Alice in Wonderland around here. So quoting directly: "Opposition parties plan to ask Thailand's Election Commission to dissolve the Bhumjaithai Party, for alleged violation of the Political Parties Act, over its policy to decriminalize Cannabis." Now just as an aside, this is me talking here, I think there has been a lot of misconceptions out there about the difference between decriminalization, legalization etc. Now to be clear, and we'll get to this in a moment but yeah Cannabis was taken off, and I will just quote it here: "Category 5 list of drugs by the Ministry of Public Health back in June”. As a result, you can call that decriminalization and in a sense it truly is, but for those who come from a Common Law background and that's probably the vast majority of people who watch this channel, decriminalization in a Common Law context is a slightly different thing. It is maybe nuanced, this may be a semantic point, but it's my understanding and again as an outside observer, albeit one who has a background in jurisprudence, but as an outside observer and somebody who has basically analyzed comparative law for years, there is a slight difference in nuance between the notion of decriminalization in a Civil Law context and just legalization. What I mean to say is in the Civil Law, unless you have a codified law that says something is illegal, it is de facto legal, the default is legal. This is very different than the Common Law where the Common Law has this kind of nebulous almost ethereal sort of cloud if you will of the Common Law which is this collection of judicial opinions which operate as if they were law. These opinions become Law, in a practical since they become Law. You see this in practice as a lawyer; you'll see it if you have to deal with it in a court case, but that is very different than the Civil Law. So, in a Common Law system in many ways it has actually got kind of more ongoing restrictions perhaps on people in that jurisdiction because you have this kind of floating body of law that is out there that is separate and apart from Statutory Law, law that has been created by legislature. In the Civil Law, and I am not going to claim to be an expert in Thai Law, I am not a Thai Attorney, I have made that very clear many, many times, I am an American Attorney, I have Thai nationality; I am the Managing Director of the firm here; I am not a Thai Attorney but I have discussed this with them and it is nuanced, this is nebulous so don't take this as the end all be all on this topic if you will but what is worth pointing out is in a Civil Law system if something is not illegal, if something is not explicitly, as we have stated in other videos especially on the mask mandate, if something is not codified as illegal, the default position is it is just legal. We have discussed this in other videos, I think we quoted an article where the police were talking about this here in Thailand where they said "hey there's no law out there, there's nothing for us to do from an enforcement standpoint". 

Now again, this kind of nebulous difference between decriminalized and legalized, I don't want to go too much further down that road but I hope folks in a Common Law context understand, there is a slightly nuanced difference between the way we look at the notion of decriminalized and legalized versus kind of in a Civil Law context how that actually operates. In any event, quoting further and this part I thought was kind of funny, I don't know why but I just did. Not the subject matter but just, I will explain in a moment. Quoting directly: "Opposition leader Chonlanan Srikaew said on Monday, that the Bhumjaithai Party's flagship policy was designed to curry favour among the people for political gain, which is against the law citing Section 92 of the organic law regarding political parties." I just want to state that again: "Opposition leader Chonlanan Srikaew, said on Monday that the Bhumjaithai Party's flagship policy was designed to curry favour among the people for political gain which is against the law." Now he may be right but I just think that's interesting. I always thought that literally all politicians did was "curry favour among the people for political gain". That has always seems like what they all do but again in many ways, I am an outsider with respect to some of this stuff. So leaving that aside. Quoting further, and I think this is more to the point: "The Ministry of Public Health issued a ministerial edict to remove Cannabis and hemp from the Category 5 list of drugs effective June 9th." So that is done, that has happened, they are removed from Category 5 list of drugs. Now, as we have noted in other videos they are covered under a different Act, I believe it's the Thai Herbal, it's the Thai Herbal, I think Remedy Act. I am saying that off the top of my head, I think that's wrong, it is something to do with Thai Herbal something Act. Excuse me for blanking on that, I probably should have put a note down as to that. 

Long story short is yeah it is sitting in a bit of a nebulous position but what we do know is it's off Category 5 and as the police mentioned as we cited in a video prior, they are not really looking to enforce anything with regard to this. As we noted in another video, dealing with this in public can cause a nuisance violation to come up and that has criminal implications. So those that are interested in this, understand, outdoor activity, outdoor usage, presumably in any form, could end up being a nuisance violation. So again, this was promulgated under kind of a medicinal notion. Now that said, the way that it is evolving, it seems to be evolving toward kind of a much more open market, a much more open social paradigm with respect to this overall thing. That said, there continues to be some controversy surrounding this. Long story short, as it sits as a practical matter, as we said in another video, "the dude abides, keep it inside". That seems to be kind of the prevailing logic of the day. That is not exhaustive legal advice by any stretch of the imagination, but that seems to be kind of the best rule of thumb which is, if using this stuff or applying this to oneself is something one wishes to do, the privacy of one's own home is the best place to do it.