Happy Monday, everyone.
This should certainly be an interesting day for cannabis stocks.
In today’s newsletter, we’ve got a dispatch on Thailand’s tumultuous cannabis market from Bart Schaneman, a journalist based in Seoul who previously reported for The Washington Post and MJBizDaily.
It’s an important story as U.S. cannabis companies eye global expansion, for medical cannabis at least, following rescheduling. Read an excerpt below and click through to read the full story.
And as a programming note, Jeremy will be off this week — you’re in good hands with Jay.
Let’s get to it.
-JB, JR
Today’s newsletter is 551 words or about a 4-minute read.
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💡 What’s the big deal?
THAILAND
How medical-only use rules killed Thailand’s once-booming recreational cannabis market
Driving the news: After Thailand reclassified the sale of cannabis flower for medical use only last year, the prescription requirement at dispensaries is accelerating business consolidation and pushing more consumers to the illicit market, according to experts in the country.
Thailand was the first Asian country to decriminalize cannabis in 2022, and thousands of shops opened almost overnight. At the time, the Thai Chamber of Commerce estimated the sector could be worth $1.2 billion by 2025. But new government regulations made flower a “controlled herb” under the Thai Traditional Medicine Wisdom Act, and some are saying it’s the end of the legal recreational business.
While medical use remains legal, recreational use is illegal under the new rules.
What they’re saying: “This requirement has ended the recreational market,” said Dr. Atthachai Homhuan, director of regulatory affairs for law firm Tilleke & Gibbins in Bangkok. “The dispensary retail model is finished. The question is no longer whether recreational cannabis will survive, but how quickly the remaining dispensaries will be required to convert into licensed medical facilities.”
The change in requirements has streamlined the legal market by removing the licenses of shops that weren’t operating or weren't willing to comply with the new rules.
“It cleared out the system,” said Chokwan Kitty Chopaka, a Bangkok-based cannabis rights activist and entrepreneur. Now the illicit market is dominating, she added.
Under the new rules, the government thought businesses would “tighten up, and everyone would listen,” Chopaka said. “What essentially happened is the black market opened up.”
⏪ In case you missed it
Eric Berlin, a legendary cannabis attorney and the leader of global law firm Dentons’ cannabis practice, joined us on Friday’s This Week in Cannabis Live to help us make sense of the Attorney General’s rescheduling order.
📣 Quotable
“You’re going to get the rescheduling done, right, please? Will you get the rescheduling done, please?” President Trump said on Saturday. “You know, they’re slow-walking me on rescheduling. You’re going to get it done, right?”
Trump signed the Executive Order directing the Justice Department to reclassify cannabis from the most restrictive Schedule I to the less restrictive Schedule III in December, but we’re still awaiting an update.
Trump on Saturday signed an Executive Order aimed at expanding research into psychedelic drugs for mental health treatments, including ibogaine. He was joined in the Oval Office by podcaster Joe Rogan.