Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video asks, who is going to be accountable in the Thai Government for a 27 billion Baht loss within the Thai Economy? That's about a billion US dollars, give or take, in terms of present exchange rate.

That being said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Relisting 'will cause 27-billion-Baht loss'. Quoting directly: "The Government's plan to put Cannabis back on a list of illegal drugs will cause a 27 billion Baht loss to the local Cannabis industry said Wisan Potprasat, CEO of the Cannabis Medical Industrial Estate Association of Thailand." Quoting further: "He said the move will reverse the previous Government's policy on the drug by listing it as a narcotic again, adding it will affect many groups, especially entrepreneurs who have invested in the Cannabis industry." Yeah I mean just the amount of investment, especially by "mom and pop" operations, small scale entrepreneurs just trying to run their own business is astounding. Quite honestly, it's been one of the great benefits of this policy shift here in Thailand and I am really sort of taken aback by how little the media seems to take this into account when they are reporting on these things just how much of the economy has been affected by this. This seems to just go unnoticed that a reversal, again as we discussed in other videos, where just some 'body' without any emergency power as we discussed previously, is just unilaterally declaring a plant to be a narcotic which I find very disconcerting, again because this is not Parliament doing it; we are not going through due legislative process. It is just a group of people that is saying of from one minute to the next, we get to say whether or not some plant is a narcotic. And as I said in prior videos, I mean again folks that are watching this, I have stated before, folks that are looking to directly invest into Thailand who are looking at this issue regardless of the underlying implications for Cannabis, because again nobody really wants to invest in a place where they're going to be arbitrarily and capricious major policy changes to the legal system; again that makes that makes investors uneasy. 

Meanwhile, the people that already have invested and detrimentally relied on the Government's policies to date, are going to have the rug pulled out from underneath them and I don't think again that that is fully flushed out, fleshed out if you will, by the media at this point; it seems to just be overlooked. And meanwhile, let me get into this further, quoting further: "Mr Wisan said the reversal of marijuana's legal status will also affect domestic and overseas sales." Yeah, absolutely, and again at a time and a place where Thailand has taken not only first mover advantage, but has massive comparative advantage in terms of this thing just as a global cash crop. And again what? We are going to reverse all of that? Why? What's the policy reason for that? And not something vague like "oh, we just want it illegal again," "people are going crazy," or "kids are dying!" which has all been nonsensical. We have seen all of this hyperbole that has really amounted to nothing. 20 billion Baht in expenses in the hospital sector! Where did that number come from? Quoting further: "Its medical uses and its status as one of the country's outstanding economic plants." Yeah, this is cash crop of a level that we haven't seen since the Colombian Exchange in the Age of Exploration where tobacco hit the European markets. I mean this is a big deal. I can't stress this enough. Quoting further: "Authorities need to consider using the law to control Cannabis in a way that allows it to continue to be used medically, he said. He suggested that regulations are needed instead of making Cannabis illegal again." Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That's what everybody has been advocating. Make some laws. Pass a law in Parliament. Again the methodology that they claim to be able to use to name this as a narcotic again, I find that logic specious and spurious at best because again this was delisted under emergency powers during the invocation of the Communicable Diseases Act which gave the Minister of Public Health an inordinate amount of emergency powers. Again under that regime, this was delisted, now they are trying to relist it without such authority. To my mind this should be done in Parliament. This shouldn't just be done by a group of people who just say "well because we say so, and because we heard a poll said 'oh a lot of people don't like this'!" That is basically the logic at this point that I have last heard out of those who want to push back against this change in policy if you will. It is basically, "Well we read a poll that said a lot of people don't like it!" And as I have brought up in prior videos, in fact during COVID as well, a lot of this 'polling' I find very dubious at best. What was it Teddy Roosevelt said? "There are lies, damn lies and statistics." Quoting further: "Mr Wisan said the International Community stance on the drug is likely to become more progressive in the future," - it's not likely, it's happening currently - quoting further: "citing the United Nation's Commission on narcotic drugs 2020 vote on whether to remove Cannabis from schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, in which the votes in favour beat votes against by a narrow margin of 27-25." So yeah, even at the UN level they are moving in the direction Thailand has already been in my opinion rightfully on the forefront of. Quoting further: "He said if the world no longer views marijuana as a narcotic, Thailand will lose many opportunities." Absolutely. That's my biggest problem here is we are rolling ourselves back from one of the biggest financial opportunities Thailand has ever seen. Meanwhile, this same Government that says that they want to do this is also say we are in an economic crisis and therefore need a Digital Wallet that will create a bunch of national debt which will re-liquidate the system - if you can even call it liquidate because it's not actually money - but will re-liquidate the system two orders of magnitude more liquidity than already exists in the banking system but the nation has to go into debt for that because of an economic crisis. Meanwhile they say we are going to roll back something that has actually added billions of dollars into the Thai economy and the rollback of which would cost about 27 billion Baht to the economy. Explain to me how that makes any logical sense! Quoting further: "Mr Wisan estimated Thailand's Cannabis industry will suffer a 27-billion-Baht loss consisting of a 7-billion-Baht loss incurred by Cannabis farms and a 20-billion-Baht loss faced by Cannabis shops nationwide." Yeah, you're shutting these people down; you are hamstringing these people in a very real sense. They detrimentally relied on this policy; they have invested time and money and sweat equity into their own businesses, and meanwhile just some arbitrary and capricious politicians come along and say "yeah we don't care, we're just overturning and upending all of that." What kind of policy making is that? Quoting further: "He accused the Government of trying to end the industry due to political reasons, saying the move will set back everything the industry has achieved over the past four years."  Well yeah it will set back stuff, and yeah, I wouldn't even say ‘political’. I brought this up before. Where is Big Alcohol in all this? Where's Big Pharma? Is this political or they are inducements of another sort that are creating the impetus for this change in policy because of such a “crisis”? Again I fail to see the crisis; we've done the videos on that. Then meanwhile, the same Government out of the same mouth, with the same voice if you will is saying, oh we have economic problems and therefore we have to do all of these very, quite honestly radical moves in changing our monetary system here in Thailand, but let's roll back something that's actually contributed serious capital to the Thai economy at a time when it needed at most. Yeah let's get rid of that! But putting the nation in debt to the tune of two orders of magnitude more liquidity than actually exist in the banking system already, that's the plan? Not let's sell a product, let's make something people want to buy. No, no, no. Let's go into debt. That's the idea. I'm sorry again, that's the policy thinking at this point? And who's going to be accountable? Who is going to be held accountable when all of this economic activity that has come about as a result of these policy changes in Cannabis are rolled back and we see the economy begin to stagnate and decline as a result of this roll back?