Spock

I come to Thailand a couple of months a year and am yet to smell marijuana when walking around - except for two young guys brazenly sharing a joint in the smoking area outside the airport. There are rules to control public use and in my experience people seem to abide by them. Perhaps in places like Pattaya extra liberties are taken, but the regulations are there to be enforced if people wish to do so. I'd have thought police would be keen to make an extra baht or two from apprehending weed smokers ignoring the law. As somebody who originally came to Thailand as a backpacker from 81 onwards, I am shocked at the wowserish, holier than thou attitude of some of the expats who seem to want Thailand to even stricter than their own country. It's ironic that the Thais now seem to have become more liberal in their attitudes while many of the expats come across as incredibly intolerant of anything that doesn't fit their narrow views. I'd have thought anyone wanting to make Thailand their permanent home would want to live in a more liberal country than the one they left. Apparently not.

So still no indication when these changes are to be implemented?

You obviously have never spent time inside. I doubt he is will be set upon in any way by fellow prisoners.

And child sexual assault doesn't carry the same stigma it would in a western prison.

Personally I am much happier to accept that they are Russians rather than Ukranians despite your insinuation that Ukranians are dodgier than Russians (which I find hard to believe). I just hope they are caught.

It literally is, lol. One isolated incident in a class I would not use is not going to deter me from train travel.

I hate these people smuggling marijuana out of Thailand. They give the government more ammunition to use against the marijuana legalisation in Thailand. I'd like to see them get the maximum penalty wherever they are caught. They ruin a good situation for the rest of us.

Totally agree. A good group stomping is what it's about in Patong and Pattaya.

Can I safely assume that when I arrive on July 15 for a month that I will be able to buy as usual through any of the 8000 outlets? That if anything is likely to change, it's not going to happen that quickly?

That's you not other people. Only newbees experience the type of reactions you describe. I have been using weed for 50 year, the last 10 vaping it. Basically I now just use it as a sleep aid and to wind down before bed. I get medical marijuana here in Australia. With the vaporizer, there is nothing in the way of an odour to offend the likes of yourself. I can't understand why Thailand makes the obtaining of a weed vaporizer so difficult.

Nothing like a bit of hyperbole. As for the reference to families, recreational use is allowed in many countries and medicinal use in many more. I hardly think foreign children are going to be exposed to anything more than they would be back home. I would rather let my children catch a whiff of marijuana than witness the soi 6 bouncers or drunk aggressive foreigners in action.

Not without money.

Pigs eat human faeces. I know that from my time in Goa many years back. So do dogs, but dogs eating dog faeces, particularly their own, is a fairly rare condition.

Are you a drug smuggler? Spy?

I only use cash for travel so carry quite a bit. I must confess to keeping it in my bag in an overhead compartment on planes, largely because I have always figured that I could trust people who could afford an airline ticket and had never heard of anyone being robbed on a plane. However, as with dog meat, bear bile, pangolin scale medicines and Cambodian call centres with imprisoned workers, the Chinese have brought to my attention yet another area of life to which I previously never gave much thought. I will be vigilant on future trips.

I was waiting for someone to blame the cannabis. Never mind the 99.99% who use it without incident. Or the influence of other drugs used at the same time - nitrous acid and probably alcohol in this case.

I think the outcome has much less to do with the '<deleted>' than it does with the person.

It's the stuff of dreams really which I am sure is in fact what it really is.

It's funny how many Filipinos really like a president who oversaw the sub judicial killing of 6000, perhaps 10000 people. They respect people who ignore the law to deal with difficult problems and short circuit a solution. The same people conveniently were duped into believing that the elder Marcos and Imelda were model citizens and now their son has turned the previous president over to the international courts. Filipinos have always shown a peculiar talent for throwing up the most unlikely of presidential talent and voting them into office. Awful people with no loyalty or respect for each other. No wonder the country despite all its promise has consistently been the basket case of SEA.

Did you ever catch up with the actual facts - that the young guy is British, not Thai?

You have no idea of the facts and are just taking a wild stab at them despite CCTV evidence of aggression and the advanced years of the couple. If you are going to speculate, make it about how the couple managed to buy land rather than how their behaviour brought all this upon themselves.

Largely because Thais do not believe in neutering animals so the dog populate grows. Plus they basically only like puppies and the adult dogs too often end up looking into their old home from the outside. This is a different case involving someone actually keeping the adult dogs but allowing them to bark all day. I wonder if the dogs are forced to lead their entire lives outdoors, hence lack the control that owners might exert if the animals were allowed to live indoors. One way or another, Thais in general are not among the world's most knowledgeable pet owners.

Thailand specialises in kneejerk reactions to single incidents, no matter how atypical those incidents may be. Happened with drinking alcohol on the trains and destroyed one of the more pleasant ways to pass time on a long journey.

Thais have somewhere legal to smoke it - their home. It's illegal to smoke cigarettes let alone weed in hotels. Other than the dispensaries, the law forces tourist smokers out on to the streets. You'd think the cops would make an exception of Pai!

Yet another emotive piece of reporting that found the facts alone impossible to stick to without heavy embellishment.