Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Cannabis situation here in Thailand, the kind of a Cannabis Industry. I have gotten a lot of correspondence on this; I have heard that this overall topic is kind of not well loved by the folks over at YouTube. Look I don't particularly exactly, I don't know how to put it, “want” is the wrong word but we talk about legal developments in Thailand on this channel, this is a major one. I get it, YouTube may not want to promote this topic whatever but there have been a lot of rather major developments from both a legal, policy standpoint here in Thailand so to not talk about this I think would kind of would be antithetical to the point of the entire channel. So I do understand, a lot of folks, I have had a lot of people telling me they are not particularly interested in this topic. That's fine, I do get it but again this is a major legal development here and I think it is probably a good idea to talk about at least to some extent. 

So I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Thailand streets ahead of competitors in the popularity stakes. Quoting directly: "Nonetheless, Thailand is now a trailblazer for Tourist Asia. Whilst countries like Singapore and Malaysia retain the death penalty for cannabis trafficking, Thailand's liberal agenda is proving both attractive and cash savvy." Yeah good point, we have discussed this in many other videos. There is just no arguing with the economics of this. 28 billion I believe was reported by the Bangkok Post that just sort of appeared, market capitalization just over the summer. That is a staggering amount of market capital. Quoting further: "As Anutin Charnvirakul, construction tycoon and Minister of Health, puts it, "We want Thai people to grow cannabis as a cash crop and to promote quality tourism at the same time."

When we bring up the notion of a “turnkey solution” for the Thai Cannabis Industry, we are talking about the foreigners out there okay, that's who I am talking about. I've had a lot of people contacting us wanting to know how to get into this overall industry legally. I want to read this quote from Khun Anutin one more time. Quoting directly: "We want Thai people to grow cannabis as a cash crop and to promote quality tourism at the same time." I think this is something that foreign nationals need to kind of be aware of that this isn't designed to bring in FDI per se, it is designed to essentially stimulate the Thai Economy; it is designed to create a new Thai economy if you will; it is designed to create a new cash crop if you will, so a lot of foreign nationals come in and they are looking at this and they really don't realize the restrictions on foreigners especially one, this is agriculture. Agriculture is heavily restricted in Thailand. It also has to do with development of real estate, again heavily restricted from foreigners in Thailand. As we have noted in other videos in all of the discussion on the developments on this, companies that are engaging in this that have a foreign shareholding, the foreigners it is not 49/51, a third is the max that foreigners can gain a benefit from this overall industry. We talked about that a long time ago; I will try to dig that out but yeah they discussed this when they brought this law online. I think this goes back so far as I think this came out under Prayut's Section 44 power and it was like one of the last things he did. Some things having to do with patents associated with this industry and then it was essentially decreed that, "look foreign nationals can only engage in this up to a third", it is not even 49/51. So again these are things that really need to be thought about for foreign nationals who are kind of interested in this overall market. I get it, there are a bunch of people out there talking about "oh everything is moving along; I have heard the Wild West; it is the Wild West with respect to this." Well maybe for the Thais but foreigners could have some real problems engaging in this if they are not being careful. In fact I would kind of almost discourage it on a general basis, again circumstantially dependent. Now there may be some options for those who are involved in this industry somehow, sort of tangentially but this is something to be very careful of especially if you are a foreign national here in Thailand.