Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Cannabis yet again. This has been a hot button topic here recently in Thailand. Thailand recently, within the past year, has legalized the substance and there has been a lot of political discussion since before and since the last election and we are still waiting for Parliament to open which seems to be going to occur imminently, although we don't exactly know when, at least as of the time of this video. We are being told it is probably going to happen in July but again it remains to be seen. 

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that is thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Go easy on the growing Cannabis growing industry says Anutin who concedes that Pita will be the next PM. The title is a little bit, I don't think Anutin quite conceded, he just sort of said yeah that's what it looks like is going to happen, but that is not the thrust of what we are getting into in this article. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. You can read what happened, what went for yourself, make your own determination. I think yeah most people are pretty well under the presumption that we are going to see Mr. Pita as the next PM and that would be great. That said, we have yet to go through all the procedures necessary for that to happen under the current Constitution. So again, we are kind of sitting here in a 'remains to be seen' kind of state but again the presumptive next Prime Minister appears to be Mr. Pita but again we don't quite know exactly. So that is neither here nor there to the thrust of this video, and we are quoting some specific excerpts from this article. Again go check out that article, again Thai Examiner as usual very thorough in getting a lot of information into that article. Quoting directly: "The incoming Government must act cautiously concerning calls to relist Cannabis as a scheduled narcotic, warned Thai Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul this week. He told reporters, on Sunday, that he believed there will be a new Government in July led by Pita Limjaroenrat while denying reports of an approach by the Move Forward Party to the Bhumjaithai Party to support the new Ministry in Parliament." Quoting further: "Anutin: Success of Cannabis and its medical benefits to the public should not be thrown away and lost by again scheduling Cannabis as a narcotic." Quoting further: "Mr. Anutin questioned both the wisdom and practicality of such a move pointing out the scientific and administrative process within his own Ministry and the need to consult with other agencies such as the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB)." Quoting further: "He also points to the growth of the Cannabis industry, which benefits the economy and the unmistakable evidence that the drug has medical benefits and should be made available for those who require it for such purposes." 

So again, as discussed in prior videos as I have brought out a lot, one of the big things is look there's a lot to be said for the prior Government; I have been vocal in things that I have disagreed with. This was in my opinion not one of them; this was a good idea. Again, I think it creates a new product that can create a massive new tax base for Thailand. We keep hearing from the Revenue Department that they are running around trying to find revenue because "oh, they shut down the economy for 2 and 1/2 years and there is not a lot of revenue as a result of not having had an economy for about two and a half years." So one way you could probably tap some revenue would be taxing this wholly new thing that's just come about legally speaking, onto the market. So again I think it is a pretty easy call from a tax standpoint. 

Meanwhile, yeah regulations absolutely necessary. I have called for regulation over and over again. The last Parliament had the ability to regulate. I have not really quite understood what exactly the kerfuffle on that was but there seems to have been some controversy in  Parliament regarding passage of that Act; it didn't end up getting promulgated and so here we are, in a situation where it is legal, very unregulated; again it is illegal to sell to people underage; it is illegal to be a nuisance by for example smoking in public or using the product in public, but long story short again as I have said before, I think it has had a huge economic benefit. We did a video previously where some have been citing estimates that 14,000 new retail businesses now exist in Thailand as a result of these changes to Thai Law. That has tremendous ramifications for both the commercial real estate sector here in Thailand as well as the tourism sector in Thailand and it creates an entirely new subset of business activity here in Thailand that just didn't exist before. So I think the economic arguments are clear. I think reasonable people can disagree regarding regulation of this particular product with regard to consumption and usage. Again I think that the Act that was discussed before and that is still sitting around in draft format probably goes ahead and speaks to all of these issues and deals with them. Hopefully when we see the Parliament reopen, we will see them go ahead and pass that or some sort of similar law rather than the really Draconian and in my opinion really over-reactionary measure of re-illegalizing something that even law enforcement officials themselves said it was a good idea to go ahead and decriminalize and legalize because it was kind of bad policy to go after folks for offenses related to this particular product and at the same time the tax revenue garnered can go after things like heroine and methamphetamine and other hard drugs that can have a tremendous negative benefit on Thai society as a whole.