(27 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++UPDATES STORYLINE AND CAPTION TO FIX TYPOS++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bangkok, Thailand – 27 June 2025
1. Signage outside 420 Cafe x Booze 21 cannabis store
2. Cannabis advocate Chokwan "Kitty" Chopaka with tablet and notebook in cannabis store seating area
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Chokwan "Kitty" Chopaka, cannabis advocate:
"Some provinces with heavy stigma is pretty much using this as a crackdown. While some other provinces, realizing that they have way too many shops within their area and don’t know what to do with the overwhelming work that is about to come out are also saying to the shop owners, to calm down, we’re not changing the rules yet. So there’s a lot of confusion that’s going on. Owners are freaking out, a lot of them are scared."
4. Various of store worker preparing cannabis product
5. Various of store manager Myothu arranging cannabis paraphernalia on shelf
6. SOUNDBITE (English), Myothu (no second name given), manager of 420 Cafe x Booze 21 cannabis store:
"A lot of shops are now closed. But now we change the plan, maybe open clinics."
7. Customer Papan Karnokpogtchananon in store
8. Cannabis purchase prepared on scales
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Papan Karnokpogtchananon, customer:
"Now they want to solve a problem by just putting in the license. In the end, it’s just the same, right? I can ask someone that I know, if he or she may be a doctor. I can get a license for I don’t know how many Baht I have to pay, right. So the problem still exists."
10. Wide of Papan at store
STORYLINE:
At a busy interchange in central Bangkok, a roadside cannabis store is feeling the impact of a new law in Thailand banning the sale of cannabis to those without a prescription.
The "420 Cafe x Booze 21" cannabis store can now only sell to a select group of customers buying for medical reasons.
The change comes three years after Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalize the plant.
The new order, signed by Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin earlier this week and which came into effect on Thursday, bans shops from selling cannabis to customers without a prescription and reclassifies cannabis buds as a controlled herb.
A violation could result in a maximum one-year jail term and a 20,000-baht ($614) fine, according to the order.
Cannabis advocate Chokwan "Kitty" Chopaka, who used to own a dispensary in Bangkok, said that the change in law has caused confusion in Thailand, with different implementations depending on province.
According to Kitty, some provinces where cannabis is stigmatized are using the law change as a crackdown, while others with many cannabis stores are more lenient.
"Owners are freaking out, a lot of them are scared."
420 Cafe x Booze 21 manager Myothu said they plan to change the store into a health clinic in order to cater to the new law.
But customer Papan Karnokpogtchananon, who was purchasing cannabis with a prescription said that the new law is still possible to circumvent.
"I can ask someone that I know, if he or she may be a doctor. I can get a license for I don’t know how many Baht I have to pay, right. So the problem still exists," he said.
Activist Kitty said that her and fellow activists are now trying to figure out the best course of action, such as rallying, to campaign for cannabis acceptance and understanding, with the hope that their voices might eventually be heard by those in charge.
"It is a plant, it is a living thing. It’s not dangerous unless someone does something with it. It can’t run over and hit you like a truck. It can’t force you to smoke it."
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