Snig27

Where I live in central Bangkok there are many, many shops openly trading and doing decent business. The cops have closed down literally none in the past nine months. They are are all licensed and display the license and seem to be operating without any issue. I don’t smoke it but as I’m a local I chat with the owners of a couple of these now and then. They are fully approved and pay taxes etc. They have been inspected by a variety of government agencies and continue to be. The government has deemed them legit.

You’ve obviously never been to central Bangkok. Vans or dispensaries have operated outside or very close to Police stations for most of the 11 months it’s been legal. People don’t blatantly smoke it in the street but the cops turn a blind eye if they do so discreetly. But pleased you have found an article on Tourist dot org.

A vastly bigger one.

Experience the world over has shown that volunteer militaries are vastly better at doing their job. Your position that Thailand, a country whose current military has yet to win a war against anyone aside from unarmed civilians, is capable of something more is possibly best described as quaint. The military in Thailand is oversized, bloated, over funded and largely operates as an illegal state within a state, one that has caused this nation immense historical harm and continues to do so. These kids are used as slave fodder for this monolith and for many their lives are destroyed (or worse) by this pointless experience. The army needs to be downsized and brought firmly under civilian control if this country is to have any future in the changing 21st Century. It will happen but removing conscription is central to that process.

It doesn't matter. THEY get to decide, not you and a bunch of mates who don't like the democratic processes.

Agreed, and his complaints are about as relevant as handful of old expats demanding in an English language forum that PT and MFP be disbanded because they don't agree with the way Thai voters seem to be voting. The main opposition parties may not have the tanks and guns but they are overwhelmingly better educated, have better communications and a grasp of how the connected world works in 2023. And if they have allies in business beyond Thailand perhaps that will help this country with its vast and growing income and life gaps/inequity, largely stagnant economy and massive needless overspending on the military. They literally couldn't do any worse despite the conspiracy theories. The junta has failed Thailand spectacularly, somebody else needs to be given a chance.

I've been to every country in SEA except Philippines and Myanmar in recent months and Thailand is the only one where masks are worn by so many. That said, if someone wants to wear one, fine, but it goes both ways and glares and looks of terror when others chose not to need to stop.

I was in Japan when the mask advice was lifted and for the first few days they were still pretty much universal but that soon changed and after 8 days or so trains in non rush hour were 50/50. Same in the streets. Still higher than pre COVID but dropping quickly.

It is not. There is no state religion. Once you correct that, the rest of the post is irrelevant. What is relevant is that this is only one of a number of restrictions that exist to protect the two massive brewing companies. It is about the elite protecting the elite to the detriment of the country.

It really depends where in the city you are. I'm around the top end of Ekkamai and it's around 50% now. Arriving back from a week in Vietnam though, it's still a shock. It's around 20% there now, at least where I was in Saigon and the Delta.

Have you thought about offering up this ‘evidence’ to science. They’ve been looking this link for close to a century and failed to find it. And you have…

Those are boutique fruits, but standard fruits from the local stores are very cheap as are many foodstuffs.

And yet it is fine for large Thai corporations with connections to the government to pump vast amounts of poisonous air across the borders continuously.

Meanwhile I was almost killed on a crossing yesterday by a speeding car that didn't stop for the red. The cop watching quickly went back to his Facebook.

I hate to tell you this, but Prayut has been in power for 9 years now and none of these advances had anything to do with his closeted mind. But Thaksin, Thaksin…….

And yet the last peer-reviewed external research on this said that all parties do voting buying equally and that it has no impact on the results. Maybe you have other research to add to this? As to the rest, that must be quite a fog you are living in given the events of recent years.

Same fella who sent his uniformed thugs out to hose, gas and beat up kids who were demanding, amongst other things, police reform.

It is illegal to import these. It is not illegal to own or use. The courts have already thrown out possession cases for that reason this year.

This broken, corrupt, creep personally killed an air quality bill a year or so ago because it impacted his mates, the large corporations who bear much of the responsibility for this annual (and worsening) poisoning of the Thai people. How many kids will have their lives forever impacted by his actions (or lack of actions) over the years?

Generals prosecuted for corrupt practices? It would never happen on Prayut's *watch*.

She said the other day that Prayut was not fit to be PM, something most of the nation knows.

Because, as per the earlier link, vaping is legal as is the sale of the devices in LOS; what is illegal is the importation of the liquid and the devices. Anutin is talking drivel for a change.

They are already legal it seems. Meanwhile millions get poisoned daily by the toxic air and his government does nothing because a large part of the reason is the large corporations that own that government. https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/no-vaping-and-vapes-are-not-illegal-in-thailand-heres-why/

It will only end when the system is cleansed to the top (and I mean above the police). Thus it will never happen. A land where convicted drug dealers are allowed to sit in the cabinet, a cabinet that exists because its head committed treason to get there, where the highest court in the land is filled with compliant political appointees is not a land where the police are required to be clean.

Chewing it is legal, the only ban is selling it unless it is "medicinal". That said, I've yet to read of a Singaporean roadblock where you pay cops $1000 in cash if you have it in your bag. As a rule, it's largely ignored by the local cops.