tomster

Hi, I have a friend that would like to move to Thailand asap and set up a company importing a few products from Europe. I would like to help him with this and as part of the process I am trying to figure out which type of visa/extension would suit him best. He is 52, British passport, no paperwork for education. As with any business there needs to be a proof of concept stage so I am reluctant for him to open a company right off the bat as it may not work, then he is stuck with the company expense, 4 Thai staff etc to maintain his Type B visa if he wants to stay. I can import a few products for him (I already have this setup in place with company and work permit) and test the market it that way. However, as he wants to get over here asap I am trying to figure out what is the best visa for him to enter on with a view to switching to type B when we have the proof of concept on the products, which will take around 6 months. Options seem to be come in on a Non O-A and get a retirement extension, or sign up with a Thai language school (which he would actually attend) and get the ED visa until confident in the business idea and ready to go for full company set up. So - are there any known difficulties switching from retirement extension or ED visa to Type B? Can either be done without leaving the country? Or any other suggestions for the best way to do this? Many thanks in advance.

If so, are there any embassies that are recommended to apply at over others? U used to get one from Penang but not heard of anybody on one for very long time, do they still exist? Thanks in advance.

Can I ask what school this is?

Long story short my 7 year son had a nasty chest infection and was off school for nearly a month, got better then had a relapse within 3 days of going back to school where masks are compulsory during inside lessons. The school is Satit Udomseuksa on Sukhumvit Soi 89, Pattaya. After some pretty heavy duty antibiotics we got the infection shifted, but there is no way I will let him wear a mask again, he needs to breath normally. I have asked them to allow him to attend without the mask but as it's closed currently not expecting a reply until they reopen next week. However, as masking is not compulsory from the Ministry of Education and Satit have chosen to keep making it compulsory, I am expecting them to say that he can't attend unless masked. So I will likely have to private tutor him until the end of term and then change schools. Hence the question to other Pattaya Parents - is your school still mandating masks, or are they optional? I guess I will need to try argue the point with them and it would be helpful if I knew what the other Pattaya schools policy on this issue is now. Thanks in advance.

Edibles are very much still on the table as long as they are 0.2% w/v or less - I also presumed they illegal were until somebody explained how it works. So make a cookie that weighs 15 grams. Add in 30mg THC during the baking. That is 0.2% THC w/v. If you want a higher THC just make a bigger cookie and increase the THC or consume cookies instead. Two notes though: 1. Where did the producer get the THC to make it? 2. You may also need a license from the FDA to produce it as it's food, the same as you do with any packaged food for sale here. The markets for edibles in Thailand I think is bigger than the market for flower, Thai's love eating, not smoking. My girlfriend eats gummy bears with THC, but absolutely would never smoke flower, nor will any of her friends. When they go out they do sativa based gummys before they leave the house, then drink a bit, not much - no smoking at all.

But if you are vaccinated and still alive - why would you worry about Chinese bringing covid into the country? There have been no new variants that have been more deadly that the covid variant they mutated from, covid is getting weaker all the time. Surely the vaccines and surgical masks will protect you - therefore is nothing to worry about?

Selling cannabis online has been very, very clearly banned - can I ask why you still do it? https://og.th/strains/orange-romulan

The issue with the import is that Thai customs are making a load of cash out of it, so are letting it through illegally. For whatever reason this backdooring is not being stopped when it could easily be, as you well know there are certain people walking around saying they have hundreds of kilos of the stuff for sale and targeting the dispensaries, who mostly lap it up (although the smarter ones finally saying no to it). I would love to see the end of the import and the focus on Thai grown weed. But for that to be viable you need to: 1. Stop the import which means cracking down on the cash cow Thai customs have found. 2. Put a very low tax, light touch framework in place and there is no way that Thailand will do that, there is too much money involved and too many political pigs at trough trying to cash in. So they will try to regulate it and fail, most people will get bored of dealing with the headache and most sales will move back to local networks at 200-300 Baht per gram (to the end user). Dispensaries will have their place in tourist areas, everybody else will buy from the local growers as and when it presents itself. This is not just a Thai thing, it's happening in every country where they decriminalize then they try to regulate.

This is just going to create a massive black market.

That is the first time I have heard of, read of, or seen anybody say that this has happened. I do not doubt that it did happen, TIT. But I know a load of people that have imported seeds with zero issues, if you use a supplier that uses stealth packaging then it is absolutely not an issue.

No you don't. The Plook Ganja app is optional until the bill that is (currently not) going through parliament is finalised and written into law. Right now you can grow however much you want for personal use, but if you want to sell it to dispensaries or commercially then the buyers may ask for "paperwork". To get said paperwork you need to register as a commercial grower on the Plook Ganja app. Or you could just print an invoice, which may or may not break the law, so best not do that.

What part of it's fine to fly with do you not get? https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/you-can-carry-weed-on-domestic-flights-airports-of-thailand/ https://thethaiger.com/guides/cannabis/can-i-take-cannabis-on-domestic-flights-in-thailand The idea that they will suddenly change the law whilst you are on route or in the air is utterly ridiculous. Cannabis flower (& Cannabis Plants) are perfectly fine to fly with - will the peeps posting otherwise please shut the F up.

The rule you are referring to is cannabis extract with THC content under 0.2% by weight - not 2%. There are zero rules in places restricting the movement of any amount of cannabis flower regardless of THC content. You just make yourself look really, really stupid by saying otherwise - you really should give up on this.

If you don't know what you are talking about - it's better to say nothing at all. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/you-can-carry-weed-on-domestic-flights-airports-of-thailand/

Great news - this changes everything!

So far it looks like dispensaries might need to have somebody there that has been on a "Training" course, and that online sales and advertising are gone. However as this was passed as a way to show that the current government was serious about not promoting recreational use (whilst the rest of the World is slowly but surely opening up to precisely that) in reality nothing is going to change or be enforced, Thai style. You expect to see absolutely nothing change and more dispensaries to open on a daily basis in tourist areas.

Looks like the guy who wrote that article is taking no chances with second hand cannabis smoke - that is a very serious face nappy.

I only wanted to get it on buyers radars - which this thread is achieving. ????

Exactly the point of my post - to raise awareness for people that didn't know about it. I think maybe I overdid it a bit though - there is some very good import out there as well. ???? My point is that there is PGR weed out there also and as customers it's the right thing to do to push the sellers to make sure they are not buying the PGR stuff. The good import costs roughly 200-300 Baht per gram which is about what most local growers not taking the biscuit are asking for top shelf locally grown weed (wholesale), so it has it place although as I stated above I think that it would be better if people bought local first. However, much of the locally grown top shelf doesn't actually get you that stoned even though it looks and smells great. So very understandable people actively seeking out the Cali, just make sure you check with the seller first that it is PGR free. If it's rock hard that is often a sign it has PGR, plus a weird, heavy high.

The rest of your post is just ramblings to be honest, I really have no idea what you are talking about. Anyways, all the best with your investments in the cannabis industry.

Fair enough, as you say it's just opinion (until the test results prove it one way or another). I clearly stated that not all imported Cali weed is grown with PGR - obviously it's not. But there is a load of weed there grown with it, and some of that weed is finding it's way here. The people that I know that know what is and is not PGR after decades of experience in the consumption side of things, are finding more and more of it. It's here and it's not going away until the awareness is raised, as we did in the hydro industry when PGR products started appearing in 2004. It took about 2 years then nobody would use them, they were effectively killed by the consumers understanding what they are and their dangers. This thread is just meant to raise awareness of a potential problem - just by doing that the problem will likely resolve itself and is a win win for consumers and growers alike in Thailand. What isn't a good idea when faced by issues like this is to ignore them, that generally doesn't end well. ????

Agreed - which is why I don't buy outdoor weed here. The Thai's spray everything but then do you honestly think the huge scale Cali growers that are pumping out PGR weed are following integrated pest management guidlines and not just spraying the exact same chemicals the Thai's use on their outdoor crops? Glad you think consuming cancer causing weed is funny - personally I think it's a very serious issue and it has nothing to do with beer. Your beer analogy is not even comparing apples with apples, the beer here is controlled by very large corporations as you well know, not by small local brewers (although this is hopefully changing). Agreed as obviously these are the guys that have the capitol to go big straight of the gate - it was the same in the USA when the green rush started there. But there are now ten's of thousands of not so well off Thai's experimenting with trying to grow high quality weed. Well part, but not all of that, is that PGR's are used to up yields. And of course the sheer scale (hectres) of grow ops in California combined with the fact that the shipping costs of cannabis are tiny per gram mean it's possible to bring in the weed at competitive prices. Also, in California you have very low humidity levels that makes growing there much easier than here, again lowering production costs as the humidity here is very hard to deal with outdoors. You meet with a few growers then - you don't own a dispensary by any chance do you?

Is brewing beer at home legal? Asking for a friend.

When you know what to look for - it's everywhere in the dispensaries now. In general terms here is the difference visually: And here is some info on the subject although if you Google "PGR weed" there is a pretty deep rabbit hole to explore: https://leafwell.com/blog/pgr-weed/ There are now many, many dispensaries selling illegally imported Cali weed as it improves their bottom line. Prices are around 150-250 Baht per gram wholesale and there is an unlimited supply. As far as I know, no dispensaries are testing this illegally imported weed for PRG before they sell it. This testing can be done fairly easily and is standard in the USA before you can sell into a dispensary: https://www.moderncanna.com/cannabis-testing/plant-growth-regulator/ Not all imported Cali weed is grown with PGR's. But if it looks like the image above then it likely is. Ask your dispensary to show you a lab report on their import weed to make sure you not smoking PGR's - if they can't then choose a Thai grown strain. Cali weed with PGR's looks and smokes good, but will give you cancer or worse. PGR's are for ornamental plants, not for burning into human lungs or eating. Buying Thai grown weed helps support Thai and expat growers alike - in these uncertain times your money is better spent in the local economy then sent overseas.

Yep - do so - be very interesting to see how you go. Cheers.