LOWERCASEGUY

1 hour ago, nomad2019 said:

maybe legalised very soon

Keywords in that sentence are:

maybe and soon.  
 

First off, if you heard about it you probably read about it via a story that was based on a government press release where it was stated:

The decree also aims to enable the growth of magic mushrooms in designated universities and educational institutions across four regions of Thailand. Institutions approved for the project will be those deemed ready to embark on experimental projects to create anti-depressants from the extracts of magic mushrooms.

That seems to indicate that the cultivation of mushrooms is being allowed for very specific research purposes.  
 

So your odds of finding it everywhere in Pattaya seem very low.  

Your account info says your account was created in the later half of 2021 so you probably haven’t been in Thailand long enough to have noticed that Thailand isn’t really known for suggestion boxes.  
 

Remarkably, in a country quite used to fielding 40 million tourists a year, your opinion of things in Thailand holds almost the same level of importance as the numbers after 3.14 in pi, technically they exist but for all practical purposes, nobody cares.  
 

This is a country where they don’t bend over backwards to make the customer happy, rather they sue people that leave bad reviews under Thailand’s rather ridiculous defamation laws.  
 

If it’s any consolation, you gave me a good laugh.  

Kitty is a xenophobic idiot.  I can't even count the number of times she's flown off the handle and posted multiple hysterical posts about some new law and then someone reads the actual law in Thai and realizes she can't read.  

She used to run her father's law office and she's on par with any poorly educated lawyer.    

She posts about laws the way many drunk people read this forum.  They read one sentence that sets them off the deep end and they start writing a nasty, hate filled response and never get around to reading the rest of the post which clarifies.  

And the real comedy in all of that was she was advising foreigners on how to get set up in Thailand with a cannabis business.  

Her talking about greed is the cherry on the cake though.  She was gouging the hell out of customers and then she found out she has competitors who weren't willing to do the same and she started crying foul.  Yes, she was selling 1234 baht buds, because she thought it was funny.  She was still carrying 1,000+ baht buds the last time I stopped in her shop a few months ago.  

My guess is that only half the problem in the market right now is imports.  The other part is massive overproduction by Thai growers.  I rarely hear about imports anymore.  They're still out there but once the local supply issue got resolved, there was no longer a reason to buy imports for many shops and a lot of that market dried up.  

I really think she's deluded on this topic and she attributes her own lack of success to these outside evil forces rather than the fact that she is simply not a good business person.  

She's too interested in pushing her personal brand.  She's doing workshops to tell other dispensary owners how to run their business.  She's drafting new cannabis laws that nobody will even bother looking at.  She's writing essays like this.  

She's in the Kitty business, not the weed business.  I don't think she understands that nobody cares about Kitty when they're looking at a 1,234 baht bud.  

2 hours ago, SeaBee said:

She's operating on the BKK/national market and I suspect she's talking more about major foreign companies like Cookies who did enter the Thai market with big foreign paws, indeed probably importing their own weed illegally from the US or somewhere (local production is just not here yet), than the local shop in Phuket owned by Falang Joe and Thai wife.

 

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/lifestyle/us-weed-giant-cookies-gets-opening-date-for-bangkok-store/

Bro, the Thai-Indian multi-millionaire that paid Cookies a ton of cash to license the name is running that.  

Cookies announced a partnership with Sukhumweed and then found out that they could only own 33% of a Thai company and suddenly became interested in licensing the brand to some sucker.  

11 hours ago, marin said:

By whom? New polls show it a mid runner at best. PT and Move forward gaining momentum still.

Sorry, but let’s say that it you read other news sources that won’t get your post deleted on AseanNow you may see some different analysis.  They may say something like this:

The party is aiming for more than 120 MP seats at the upcoming general election on May 14 compared to the 51 seats that they won in the previous election in 2019.

One can do a little simple math and see that if BJT gets anywhere to even close to 120 seats they will be a dominant #2 party.   PT can either bring them in as an ally or they can make a strong enemy.   
 

I’m assuming the reason why they don’t get the same news coverage as PT or MF is because PT has to win by a massive landslide to form their own government (most analysts say they won’t come close to a landslide) and MF and PT are courting similar voters.  So PTs success means MFs failure and MF success costs PT seats.  

And 

"Bhumjaithai will likely gain the most seats among the parties in the government coalition," Wanwichit said, predicting it could win more than 70, including from rural strongholds in the lower northeast.

Wanwichit Boonprong is a political scientist at Rangsit University.  This was in Reuters.  
 

There are dozens of similar references.  I can find a reference to BJT’s expected “second largest party” in pretty much every Thai news outlet.  
 

Honestly, I don’t know why some Thai news sources go so far out of their way to only focus on PT, MF, and the Dems.  
 

Perhaps that’s the more exciting race to cover.  BJT has Buri Ram and a lot of other races already locked up and a lot of MPs that won their seats in other parties have moved over to BJT for the upcoming elections which make them easy wins for BJT.  
 

For most Thai political pundits, PT #1 and BJT #2 are a lock.  The only question is how big each party will be and whether any of the other parties pick up enough seats to become major players.   

Interestingly, there are several scenarios where PT doesn’t get the PM slot.  
 

There are a lot of unelected votes that are not thrilled about another Shinawatra in the PM spot and have already said they’re not voting for anybody who would bring instability.   
 

That could force PT to align with BJT to get enough votes to overcome that opposition and they may have to give up the PM spot to BJT in exchange for getting the prime ministry roles.   
 

And another scenario is BJT cobbling together enough parties to put Anutin up for the PM slot.  
 

Either way, most paths to the PM seat go through BJT after this upcoming election.  
 

This is why PPRP has already had meetings with BJT and PT keeps denying they’re talking with BJT (saying that it’s too early for that).  
 

Most political pundits picked PT to win by a landslide back in Jan but they aren’t polling as well as they would need to win by a landslide so now the Thai media is speculating at what coalitions will be forced together in order to form a government.   And BJT will be a critical party if they get anywhere close to the 70 seats pundits expect them to get and the 120 BJT is aiming for.  

36 minutes ago, billd766 said:

If you believe the polls, Anutin and the BJT are down in the also rans.

BJT is widely expected to be the second largest political party in terms of number of seats held and a potential roadblock to any other party trying to form a government.  
 

PT will be the only larger party but they actually have a lot of problems in forming a government because of the possibility they try to being Thaksin back to Thailand.   

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

How do you know the people arguing have white skin?

My apologies to POC.  

7 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

"You can doubt all you want.  It's just a sign that new information doesn't sit well with you if it conflicts with your POV".  

 

Personally, based on the things you've written, I would attribute that to your naivety and lack of understanding how things in the real world work here.

 

Talking about being pulled off the street and executed by the police, I do know somebody who was pulled off the street, chained to a bed and held for millions of Baht ransom, by the BiB, Lumpini station. The man in question was tracked by his cell phone signal and rescued by the Thai swat team about a week later. The man in question, an American, was an investor in oil and restaurants. Other more seasoned posters may remember the incident, I guess 8 or 10 years ago, unsure. 

So, what you’re saying is, the law wouldn’t have protected him?   
 

Yes, all kinds of bad stuff can happen to you.  You could be arrested, kidnapped, tortured, etc but that was not OP’s question and it’s just a bunch of barstool lawyers saying, “Well, you should cower in your home 24/7 because bad things might happen.”

It’s legal to fly with cannabis domestically. The NCB and AOT have gone on the record in the Thai media.

Theres no law that says it’s legal because that’s not how legal systems generally work.  They tell you what isn’t legal and everything else is legal.  
 

There’s no law that legalized cannabis.  Thai parliament passed a law removing cannabis from the list of controlled substances.  
 

Thats what made it legal, being removed from the list of things deemed illegal.  

5 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

The TM30 rule was created in 1979 but was wasn't actively enforced until three years ago.

 

Dropping a cigarette butt on the ground in most parts of the country will get you a nasty stare at best, on Sukhumvit in Bangkok it' will cost you 2,000 baht.

 

Bank letters needed for long stay visa extensions are allowed to be up to seven days old in many parts of the country, in others they must be no more than 24 hours old and in at least one case, dated the same day.

 

Fixed bank deposits are not allowed as proof of 800k in the bank with many Immi. offices, at others they are perfectly admissible.

 

Those are things that occur to me straight away, if I were to sit down and really think about it, I could probably come up with  long list.

 

Goal posts being moved again.  
 

TM30 was a law that was in the books but wasn’t enforced.  
 

There are laws against littering.  Their enforcement is sporadic.  
 

Immigration offices have different interpretations of immigration law and apply things differently.  
 

The police could enforce the no smoking law but they can’t change the law.  What you’re suggesting is that the cops could make up a law that doesn’t exist.  

4 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

That might be how things work where you come from but it's not always how things work here.

I’ve been coming to Thailand on and off for over 20 years and have lived here almost 10. 
 

I’m quite aware of how the laws and Thai system work.  
 

Like I said, I’m also involved in the industry and regularly talk with lawyers and Thai lawmakers.  

4 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

Yes, all of that is true but so is the fact that laws here frequently exist but are rarely applied, until some future date when it becomes convenient to do so. Plus interpretation and enforcement of the laws here are such huge variables that something that is acceptable in one area may not be in another. You also have to ask yourself if the average BiB will hand out a warning and forgo issuing a fine, I remain highly skeptical of that. 

It’s great when you can move the goalposts whenever facts get in the way.  
 

You can remain as skeptical as you want.  But your position sounds rather comical.  
 

What other things do you not do in Thailand out of fear of imaginary police persecution?  

1 minute ago, Dan O said:

And I showed you the Health Minister comment from the same interviews. As I said its not legal or illegal, depending on who you talk to. Take whatever position you want but don't cherrypick info and only present one side of the sitiuation.

That’s not how laws work.  
 

Either something is expressly allowed or it is expressly forbidden.  
 

Cannabis is neither.  That doesn’t make it legal or illegal.  It simply isn’t illegal.  
 

Where does it say that you can bring a football on a flight?  
 

There is no link because no airline is going to make a list of everything you can carry on a flight.  Instead they have a list of expressly prohibited items and cannabis is not on that list except extracts.  
 

So if someone wants to claim that it’s illegal, they need to show evidence.  
 

It should be relatively easy to find.  Someone, somewhere must have mentioned it in the media if it was illegal.  
 

I have both reached out to most of the major domestic airlines and they have all said they have no rules against cannabis.  
 

I have also flown with large quantities of cannabis in my carry on and shown the weed to security and they’ve said nothing.  In fact most of the time they smile.  
 

The burden of proof here is not on me.  It’s on anybody saying anything other than it’s legal to fly with cannabis.  

5 minutes ago, nigelforbes said:

Smoking marijuana in public places such as schools, temples and shopping malls can lead to a 25,000 baht ($750) fine and a three-month prison sentence.

The important part there is the phrase “can lead to”.  
 

This is the same law for cigarettes.  
 

The police are first to give a warning.  
 

This was so misreported in all media, Thai, International.  
 

They mostly listed the maximum penalty that was possible for multiple violations.  
 

It’s like saying that if you break a traffic law in the US, your license can be permanently revoked and you could serve jail time.  
 

But that’s not the penalty for a first offense.  Nor is it even the penalty for a second offense for a serious traffic violation like DUI.  That’s usually the penalty for 3 or more DUI violations and dozens of more minor infractions.  
 

A lot of confusion is because the journalists are:

a)  Writing clickbait headlines. 
 

b)  Are rewriting what a Thai media source said about it hour fully understanding the topic. 
 

8 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Then YOU go ahead and risk your liberty. Until some time has passed and this isn't such an issue, suggesting a tourist to go ahead and risk it is foolish.

I will and I have.  
 

3 minutes ago, Dan O said:

This is a quote from the Public Health Ministry in the same AOT commentary about cannabis on flights you referred to. The AOT was waiting for legal clarification and guidance in the absence of pending regulations. 

 

"In a brief statement, the Public Health Ministry today clarified that transporting any cannabis or hemp, in any form, is still illegal."

 

Since I’m pretty sure this source isn’t allowed on ASEAN Now, here’s a quote from an article.  You can copy and paste it into Google. 
 

“Passengers who wish to bring legal cannabis or cannabis products on domestic flights are advised to pack it in their checked baggage. The reason is that cannabis items carried on board must be inspected by staff from the Narcotics Control Board and would cause a delay during security checks.”

7 minutes ago, Dan O said:

I have no fear and stand by what I wrote until someone shows a valid link and not rumor or unconfirmed sources.

 

There are laws on the books from when they removed it from a controlled drug for medical use and if I recall the the levels of thc have to be below 2%. Its legal to grow and use at home and legal to sell with a license but under the original relaxed release for use but I question all the air carrier making the statement you wrote.

Why do I have to provide a link for you when it’s literally on thousands of websites.  
 

Google “AOT Thailand cannabis domestic flights”.  
 

2 hours ago, Dan O said:

Can you post a link to show that its 100% legal?

 

Its my understanding that its basically undefined due to the jumble of laws not being approved.   It may not be illegal but I don't think its actually legal either. Its more that its not enforced consistently unless its convenient for other reasons.

 

Also traveling thru at least some airports you may find yourself caught in anti smuggling activities.   It’s available for sale almost everywhere so why risk any hassle or worse something worse. Thailand removed cannabis (except for extracts) from the list of narcotics and controlled substances.  

The issue with the laws is exactly the opposite of your fear.  There is no law.  That’s what the cannabis bill fight in parliament is all about.   
 

The people that legalized it want to pass some laws that will put some restrictions on it.  The opposition parties don’t want it voted on before the next election so they can campaign on recriminalizing it.  
 

AOT has even published guidelines as to their policies on cannabis on flights that they formed based on discussions with the Narcotics Control Board.  
 

On around June 13th of last year I called all the major domestic carriers and asked them their policy on cannabis on flights.  
 

Everyone that responded said the only policy is that it has to meet the luggage requirements.  

1 hour ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Laws in Thailand are enforced by folks who have no clue as to what is or isn't on the books. Even if you find a link saying it's 1000% legal to board a local flight with a small bag in your possession, too many people from the local TSA to the BiB with the handcuffs aren't necessarily aware. I would NEVER take such a chance on something that is a completely unnecessary risk. Just buy it locally wherever you go. This really is a no brainer.

What would be the charge?  
 

Cannabis is no longer a controlled substance.  

On 2/6/2023 at 8:24 AM, tomster said:

They also said vaccines stop the spread of Covid, which turned out to be completely untrue.

 

The WHO are corrupted to the core, you should take any advice they offer with a massive pinch of salt.

 

But don't use salt unless your doctor says so, obviously.

 

 

I don’t know, I’m not a doctor but it seems to make sense that alcohol isn’t good for you.  
 

Sure, I love beer and liquor as much as the next guy but I’ve never thought it was good for me.