Spock

It's hardly a 'dodgy business event' when 8000 shops open along with numerous growers and a million people register the 20 plants allowed by law to grow at home. In any normal country, the government would not be flip flopping on such an important matter. Thailand unfortunately elects governments that measure up all too readily with the general apathy directed at politics and matters related to such. Always one step forward then two steps back in Thai politics. It doesn't help credibility when the prime minister isn't even popularly elected or some maggot like Thaksin can pull political strings even while supposedly confined to prison.

Happy to service a market with stalks, roots and leaves, after throwing away all the THC containing heads?! That'll make them millionaires overnight!!😁 What about the granting of the right to all citizens to grow 20 plants at home and register this so its legal? Do you think any of them were going to use the crop for medicinal purposes? The message from the government to the people was pretty clear at the time. Die in hell, Thaksin Shinawatra and cronies.

8000 dispensaries, many growers and the millions who registered to legally grow 20 plants at home were hardly responding to a loophole, and if it is to be seen as such, it's one that has allowed recreational use to flourish without interference from police or government. To suggest people were not showing good business practice in the circumstances is nonsense. They did what they were permitted to do under the legislation and no doubt believed that the situation would remain the same in the future. Then along came arch weed enemy Thaksin Shinawatra and the whole situation changes. He and Duterte made a great pair with their thousands of extra judicial killings of small time users and individuals who had enemies within the ranks of the constabulary.

I am booked to stay for a week at the Pho Place Hotel in early August. I chose it because of its location and the relative quiet offered by its position down in an alley, which is obviously also a disadvantage in a fire. There was a mention of the hotel but only that the fire there had been contained.

Only took one post for the first reading between the lines and guess beyond the context comment to come out. Well done on being the first Doubting Thomas to put the blame on the mascot.

You make an initial assumption and then just run with it. Your post contributes absolutely nothing helpful to the discussion, but thanks for your contribution anyway.

But she can demand the same standards as back home and she has. Hope she wins.

You sound like a particularly unreasonable person. You have no right to ask the owners of a friendly dog in a restaurant to take their dog away. I wish the owner had told all 189 of you to bugger off.

Why shouldn't he pursue this further given how lightly the farang was dealt with by the law? I would be pissed off too at 6 dogs being released upon me by this entitled Belgian guy.

Send me the name of your shop and I will buy some next month.

It would be medical cannabis without THC according to the guidelines, which is not the medical marijuana available in the west, and certainly not what I would need or accept. Tourists are also not going to obtain it as medical weed.

The edibles on sale are not so good in my limited experience.

Accept that weed in your system from the day before is not going to impair a driver's ability in the way that being over .05 would. It's an unfair system and a concern for users of medicinal marijuana.

But some dog breeds are far more capable of causing severe injury than others, irrespective of training and ownership.

I don't think age has much to do with it. Some people including me at 70 are not averse to taking a drug to enhance pleasure in life. Weed in fairly small amounts is about all I require these days. I assume you are also a non drinker, because if not, you are being hypocritical saying that you don't understand people taking drugs.

Hard to believe you would actually forsake eating at a favourite restaurant because the smell of a joint might waft your way! I am not so sure that the smells from the shops or of people smoking privately are in fact detectable from the streets. I did not once smell weed in the month I spent in Thailand last year - Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and I myself am a user. Seemed to me that everyone abided by the regulations as to where smoking was allowed. None of the many shops I entered or encountered had an outdoor seating area. Maybe Phuket does but it is a tourist area so demand is probably high, and theoretically tourists would not be allowed to smoke it legally on their hotel balconies or smoking areas. I had so much trouble finding places to smoke last year that I have opted to stay in an apartment building from last year simply because I was able to smoke or rather vape on the balcony there last year.

Prone to using a bit of hyperbole are we?!

How can he possibly become PM after last time? I thought his party had been disbanded or disallowed because of its lese majeste policy. Thai politics is difficult to follow and understand.

You said it yourself - 'without knowing if they deserved a beating' - but that didn't hinder you determining that the beating was well deserved. From 'the more Thai than the Thais' camp.

Yeah it would be a much more satisfying ending for you if he was in a come or dead!

One of the 'I'm more Thai than the Thais' expats.

It was the same in Patong when I lived there 6 months in the 90s. Twice had my beer bottle snatched from my table and broken over someone's head.

If they haven't realised by now they never will.

What does it really matter who started it? It was the way that it was continued and ended that is the concern.

And then they beat and kick them to death or close to it and that's fair enough is it? ! In this case you are making assumptions that the incident occurred because the farangs disrespected the culture. Not that you have any idea that this is true, but it supports your irrational belief that Thais can do no wrong. It's a bit laughable anyway suggesting that culture and genuine local ways can be found within a girlie bar in Pattaya.