Thailand Opens to the World and Cannabis
Special Groundwork Series for Cannabis in Thailand
November 1, 2021. Today is the day that Thailand re-opens to much of the world, while the 10th of this month marks the nationwide launch of the Thai medical marijuana leadership drive.
Today’s issue: Thailand Opens to the World and Cannabis
Welcome to Cannabis in Thailand
Weed and me in Thailand Q&A
The first platform to aggregate Asian cannabis markets is a Thai startup
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Welcome to Cannabis in Thailand
Since my arrival in Bangkok roughly 2 and a half years ago, I’ve seen Thailand legalize cannabis, open nearly 400 cannabis dispensaries, give licenses to dozens of cannabis community enterprises and develop robust cannabis research in its top 5 universities.
And I’ve seen HSR train tracks and trestles built across the Southeast, two of the largest commercial ports in East Asia deepened and expanded, and a new superhighway, that runs across the Eastern seaboard to the new Bangkok train station, the largest in Southeast Asia.
The birth of Thai ganja is taking place against a rising backdrop of Thailand’s enormous special economic zone, The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). As new fields of cannabis are cultivated and processed, bullet trains are coming right around the bend, as are:
Exponential growth in tanker traffic in the 2 enlarged seaports
An expanded airport
The emergence of the first Asian cannabis industry on earth
Both Thai weed and the EEC have had their unfolding brought to a standstill by the lockdowns that came, went, came back and are now slowly lifting.
Thailand is stuck. Has been for some years. Lockdowns devastated the economy – an economy already filled with a great deal of rot – to the degree that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya‘s characterization of the harm done to the poor globally applies to Thailand today:
The destruction wrought by lockdowns on the poor worldwide is staggering. It was an immoral and heartless policy imposed out of fear without thought of the collateral harms.
Thailand is not however, a poor country. It’s in an upper tier of middle-income countries, which places it in a cohort with 19 other upper-middle-income nations. Real wealth has been elusive long enough for all of these countries that they have their bleak economic category: They are all said to be stuck in a trap, the “middle-income trap”.
I’ll put all the trap-talk on ice for now; suffice to say that many of the 19 are developing a cannabis sector. Some, like Thailand, say that cannabis can provide a catapult – or at least be a central piece of it – to fling their economies out of their quagmires. The idea is that it’s smart to try to use cannabis to break out of your middle-income trap.
Some are growing cannabis quietly, others, like Uruguay, with firecrackers and light shows. An increasing number are reforming cannabis prohibition laws for their citizens, and the ones that aren’t are talking about it.
No doubt, the impediments and obstructions that these countries will face as they get around to legalization will resemble Thailand’s challenges. After all, it’s Thailand spearheading the Asian advance to cannabis legalization, and encouraging its medicinal use nationwide and globally.
No other country in Asia comes close.
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This Groundwork Series is intended as a resource. It scratches surfaces of major themes that are coming soon. Like:
Real-life examples of the birth and growth of Thai cannabis
Assessments from entrepreneurs, grow masters and cannabis investors
Break downs of misleading claims, myths and rumors
Analysis of the spread and interplay of cannabis community enterprises, licensing and multi-national deals
Scenery along the way, in the most glorious tropical climbs, watching the growth of a new world of ganja
Later, in ordinary issues, the mission is: constantly return to the question, what makes the Thai ganja sector grow? By:
gauging the effects of local innovation and the impact of regulations
watching cannabis enterprises involved with the EEC and those that intend to go global
getting our bearings on the licensing process as much as possible
asking how the first cannabis investors in Thailand navigate regulations and supply chain challenges
developing a sense and taste for Thai ganja, and assessing the quality of available products
By the way, I try to call attention to my concrete claims, questions, predictions, suggestions, promises, pledges and bets to function as reminders.
These reminders, italicized and bullet-pointed, (like this) are sprinkled throughout.
Not so much a mission statement; more a stab at proposing a method: To analyze cannabis operations, inquire into the quality of the plants and the products, and provide concrete descriptions of the impact that this new phenomenon – a legal cannabis sector in Thailand – has on the people who give it life in their workaday worlds.
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Thailand Opens to the World and Cannabis
Before it became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize cannabis, Thailand first had to dispense with “reefer madness”-type taboos and stigmas (see reminder here). Thailand inspires people in other countries to push for transformations in cannabis – social changes that expand personal liberty, enhance physical and mental health and increase national prosperity.
Exhibit A – Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo Nigeria. In a speech to Parliament, the told his audience to shed their “archaic attitudes” toward cannabis as the “devil’s plant”, and to change the laws of the nation and develop a plan to produce and sell weed.
Cannabis is a multi-billion naira industry that can help diversify the Nigerian economy if judiciously utilized.“
Seeing the potential of Thai weed led the governor to speak at a Stakeholders’ Roundtable on the “Benefits and Opportunities of Cannabis in Nigeria”.
My visit to Thailand was an eye-opener! We saw a forest reserve used in the past to cultivate and process hard drugs transformed to be used in an environmentally friendly way for healthy ventures. We saw people who previously sold hard drugs engaged in legitimate cannabis business ventures.
The Thai weed industry seems to catch everyone’s eye – and everyone likes what they see; it inspired this Nigerian official to try to persuade his colleagues to legalize cannabis and oversee the dawning of a new day for cannabis in Nigeria.
Alas, many of the members of Parliament turned out to be unreformed drug warriors. The majority reiterated an enthusiasm for the war on cannabis with rhetoric that would have resonated with any DEA agent in the US until 25 minutes ago.
Mr. Rotimi’s address was a win though – his remarks initiated the first national cannabis debate in Nigeria.
We will check in on the Governor’s progress over the coming months.
Mr. Rotimi traveled to Thailand with an open mind, and he returned to Africa a believer in cannabis. This trend will continue. After all, who can help but feel elated by legal restrictions on personal liberties being lifted, innovations being encouraged and rewarded, new businesses being created, more hiring and a new industry taking shape?
The taboos and stigmas against cannabis are fading from the minds of the old, never to be burned into the brains of another young generation. Look around. Everywhere: we are witnessing nothing less than the opening of the global mind to cannabis.
Thailand: Trailblazer. As we follow Thailand, we follow the leader of what will be – at some point – the rough-and-tumble of 20 distinct cannabis markets in countries with economies of similar size to Thailand, hitting their heads against walls that are similarly difficult to raise.
Once Thailand opens its borders today, once tourism warms up and there is work again, Thai ganja will be put to the test straight away. Then we will see what the cannabis sector can do – if only because the stakes will be so very, very high. Thai elites conveyed the following to the Associated Press last week:
The Health Ministry is focusing on expediting policy to allow Thailand to grow and produce cannabis products and globally recognized medicines after medical marijuana clinics were launched previously and generated 7 billion baht (2oo million US) this year. They hope to push fast industry growth to solidify Thailand as the medical marijuana hub of Southeast Asia, the first country to support it in the region.
I know that many happy patients frequent Thai medical marijuana dispensaries today. Quality and variety are increasing and prices are definitely not rising, and sometimes going down. Thai patients with critical ailments get their marijuana for free, within a universal health care plan.
Yet there is also confusion, misinformation and mixed messages.
The structural basis of the sector, the community enterprises, has already proven attractive to foreign investors, who are building several full-service facilities in sync with their partners in the enterprises. All this activity while large swaths of the country are still locked down! Determination in the minds of cannabis professionals? Yea, I’d say so.
Cannabis in Thailand faces no opposition and inspires an abundance of ambition, yet regulations and restrictions have not eased as expected. Let’s watch what happens as the borders continue to open.
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Weed and me in Thailand Q&A
Is cannabis use legal in Thailand?
Yes, with strings attached. Thailand is not Colorado. In December 2018, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize medical marijuana. Then in 2021, Thailand issued guidelines for the use of cannabis and hemp for medicine, food, drinks and cosmetics. For the time being, forget about adult-use or what means the same (but sounds ridiculous) recreational use.
Unprocessed buds (flowers), as of this writing, are not for sale. That will change soon. When? No one knows. The direct form of medicinal marijuana with THC in Thai dispensaries is THC oil or cannabis oil with THC. One medical marijuana user in Thailand tweeted that her dispensary told her that flowers would be available by May of 2021. Anything? Hard no. Welcome to Thailand, as they say.
Those who live or have lived in Thailand will get the anecdote straight away: it can seem like a blizzard of promises and deadlines issue forth from headline news, conferences and panels on new ideas for Thailand, out of which only a trickle of actions ever materialize, and the ones that do manage to turn into something often remain garbled and vague action plans that lack transparency.
As for cannabis, there have been gains, for sure. In the beginning, all dispensaries were called clinics and were in state-run hospitals only. Qualifications for prescriptions were strict. Palliative care for cancer patients? OK. And those with MS? No problem. Restrictions began winding out from there.
Today, explaining that you suffer from insomnia will do, which is an excellent development since you do need a medical marijuana card to consume legally. Anxiety is another ailment that is broad in scope yet still recognized (rightly) as an ailment that can be treated with cannabis. Dispensaries continue to pop up in all regions of the country, and many deliver.
Dispensaries (clinics) are everywhere and are not limited to the major metro areas, though naturally, the greatest density is in Bangkok.
Can I purchase cannabis as a tourist?
Yes. Medicinal CBD and THC oils are available (edibles are beginning to show up in some Bangkok dispensaries, I’m told). The high of the more potent THC oil is a lot like quality bud. CBD oil has impressive palliative impacts sans psycho-activity, relieving anxiety without getting you high if that appeals.
Anyone can get a medical marijuana card in Thailand with a quick physical, provided on the spot. You write down your health issue on the application. Purchases of marijuana outside of a dispensary are illegal and can open you up to rip-offs, shakedowns, or getting tossed in jail. (Note Benne: Be aware of reggae bars with weed menus.)
Quality THC oil and THC-CBD oil are available in most dispensaries; no buds available yet, but it’s in the cards (I’d bet on availability by late 2022).
For now, Thai extracts will continue to develop – with researchers and manufacturers working from Thai universities within community enterprises to deliver new products to the domestic market now.
Thai weed will have global destinations by the end of 2022.
Can a dispensary provide an experience that is healthful, historical, cultural, scientific, aesthetic and scenic? There are upwards of 300 dispensaries now, with many others on the way. What may be the coolest dispensary in Thailand is in the countryside, just under 2 hours North/Northeast of Bangkok. It’s on the first floor, with the Museum of Traditional Thai Medicine (w/giftshop), and the “Ganja Ros,” meaning “Taste of Ganja” Cannabis Cafe.
“Chao Hospital” (Chaophraya Aphaihubet Hospital)
A Twitter follower informs me that the name of Thailand’s biggest river, from which the hospital takes its name, is the Chaophraya River. So it’s, Chaophraya Aphaihubet Hospital. Like I said, Chao Hospital, in Prachin Buri.
Customers at the dispensary can obtain:
Medical cannabis prescription
THC oil, CBD oil & THC/CBD oil
Cannabis cultivation courses
The non-cannabis herbal medicines are produced at the hospital, while the cannabis is cultivated at Sweet Mellon Farms 100 miles to the north, in Korat (Sweet Mellon Farms are featured next week, in issue #2).
Traditional Thai medicines, next door to the medical marijuana dispensary.
On the other hand, if Bangkok has you now, you may prefer a more hardboiled grab-pay-leave experience in the city. Check out the dispensary below, in Pratunam Bangkok. I chose it partly because the storefront helps put to rest bogus rumors that there are no oils available with THC higher than .3 percent, which is less than a trace.
Vice Magazine published an article in late October with the shocking claim that “Medical marijuana has been legal in Thailand for almost three years, but users are still turning to illegal sources.” The reason given for this puzzle was, “…in Thailand no cannabis oil can contain more than .3 percent.” This is way, way wrong, (consult signage below).
Medical Marijuana Dispensary, Bangkok, Indra Square Mall, 2nd Floor
In addition to THC oil, there is CBD/THC oil to provide the so-called “entourage effect”, which is the interplay of both of these cannabinoids, which most closely matches the wellness outcomes as nature intended.
Plus, another Twitter follower tweeted that he has seen “Delta 8 THC appearing in the Thai market.”
Can I bring cannabis?
Yes, provided you have a valid medical marijuana card from your home country and the details match your passport.
Can I grow Cannabis as a resident?
They said you could, but you can’t. The idea that citizens can grow ganja for personal use and profit caught hold after a publicly promoted initiative, with the big news that households could start growing up to 6 plants. Next came the announcement that farmers must form their community enterprise to become eligible for a license to grow and sell weed.
The mixed messages left a simple question: Can a private citizen grow 6 plants and use and/or sell the buds to a licensed medical facility, or is it no-license-no-grow? The original full-throated freedom to grow at home is being walked back in PR remarks like these, leading to what I see as a consensus: No license-no grow, explained clearly in August 2021 in a Cannabis and Hemp Business Guide: Thailand:
Some Thai political parties have campaigned to allow six cannabis plants per household to be cultivated domestically, leading to confusion among many investors and farmers. However… the current law only allows private parties to produce cannabis under the supervision of state agencies and the six-plant policy. “Private parties” can still include farmers— for example, a farmer can operate under a community enterprise, whereby their production activities are under the supervision of the sub-district health promotion hospital (the primary health facility in most rural parts of Thailand)—but domestic production is not permitted.
Officials want to keep a lock on THC, which is already leading to confusing regulations like the one above. And there’s the rub. It’s not the cannabis market that’s complicated or contradictory, but rather the regulations that sprout up around the first signs of economic growth.
Can I invest in Thai cannabis?
Yes; there are 2 ways. 1) There is now a Thai weed mutual fund offered by MFC Asset Management. MFC Global Cannabis Fund (MCANN) is Thailand’s first actively managed mutual fund focusing on investments in cannabis-related businesses. Their brochure has captivating graphics and a good survey of publicly traded Thai weed-related companies. I have to say though, that when it comes to mutual funds, I’m an index investor. Please don’t count on me for much more info on this one.
2) Foreign direct investment is welcome and currently active in a variety of start-ups and larger firms, where hiring consultants from the US, Australia and Europe to shape vertical integration within community enterprises is a thing.
R&D leaders in Thai universities solicit funding from pretty much anyone who wants to make a deal with research and manufacturing programs, joint ventures for medical marijuana and/or CBD products, product development and ongoing technical services.
There are partnerships based on technology transfers too. As one example among many, Cannabis Testing Made Simple, (CTInstruments ) is a Canadian company that has an exclusive with Green Banyan Co, a Thai yard and garden company that sells cultivation equipment. CTInstruments is
…on a mission to make cannabis testing simple and affordable. Producing compact, low-cost high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instruments for analysis of cannabinoids … combatting inaccurate testing across the industry caused by poor access to high-quality equipment. … presents experts and nonprofessionals alike with Cannabis Testing Simplified.
The machines can test for CBD, THC and at least 113 other cannabinoids found in cannabis plants – not just in oils, tinctures and buds (flowers), but also in food and drink.
Use of these machines in Thailand could go something like this: Community enterprise A gets one of these machines so they can certify THC and CBD ratios across a range of products – then if it works out, community enterprise B, C, and D get the machines too, and then let’s say a common practice, or protocol, of CBD and THC certification, emerges, with clear rules and a competitive edge. Look at this scenario as a sketch of one step in the birth of a new market.
Thailand’s ban on foreign applications for cannabis licenses, until February 20, 2024, has become another spigot of misinformation, Contrary to many legal reports and new articles, the ban DOES NOT preclude foreign investment. International cannabis companies and investors are in the Thai ganja business right now, under licenses owned by the state or Thai citizens.
The ban is on total foreign ownership (licenses) for the next 22 months, that’s all.
The word on the street is that the ban will be lifted, at least partially, in 2022.
Japan is close to closing the biggest Hemp deal with Thailand in history. If it’s full ownership you crave, investing in a Thai community enterprise now, and piggybacking on its license, is a pretty solid path to being first in line when licenses become available, which is what MXP has done with its investment of $10 million, for instance (more on their plan next time).
The players in this league have proven they are tenacious. Despite severe Covid lockdowns, foreign assets are being deployed in cannabis community enterprises that are producing, and robust R&D has persisted in the all-but-empty semi-locked down labs at the licensed universities.
Two flagship Thai companies in the sector that have been building facilities and expanding grow amounts through the lockdowns are Golden Triangle Group and Eastern Spectrum Group. You owe it to yourself to check out both websites.
Assessing Thai cannabis exceptionalism
Many countries in Asia grow cannabis. What makes Thailand different is not only its legal reforms but also its advocacy of cannabis use among its citizens and visitors. South Korea has legalized medical marijuana also, but there is no comparison here with Korea’s ultra-tight grip on any THC.
Only Thailand says it is committed to developing a domestic ganja market. Only Thailand says it wants to be a global hub for medical marijuana. And last week, the Director-General of the Min of Health declared:
The Department of Medical Services and the Ministry of Public Health will follow the plan of pushing a medical marijuana policy into effect, starting from November 10th. In this case, marijuana will be widely used for medical purposes and developed as a major industrial crop which could potentially boost the domestic economy
There is a strong inclination, given the enthusiastic rhetoric captured by the Associated Press – and the paucity of empirical data available from actual cannabis transactions in the workaday world– to reach for state-sponsored initiatives and signing ceremonies for evidence of growth.
How else can you identify growth in a nascent sector like Thai ganja, the thought goes. And then, just like that, you start to see initiatives and projects galore. Initiatives like:
the collectivization of many farmers under 1 license, making it legal for all of them to grow cannabis as one community enterprise (in Buri Ram).
Or projects like:
the official agreement to include a selected cannabis community enterprise into the EEC special economic zone (in Chon Buri).
If you’ve been tasked to find proof that things are moving in the right direction, you might want to point at this pair of examples and say, “there it is, there’s the growth of the nascent market – right there.”
My question is, what if it isn’t?
Are you pointing to real growth in Thai ganja, or are you pointing to spurts of cash infusions shot into the cannabis sector, tied to a variety of promotional campaigns?
If it’s possible that these interventions into cannabis in Thailand are not essential variables in a model of real growth, then we need to aim our investigations in an entirely different direction.
What if cannabis initiatives, subsidies and showcasing a community enterprise in the EEC provide no relevant info about how the cannabis sector is growing?
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The first aggregator of Asian cannabis markets is a Thai startup
Here is an example of the kind of different direction I have in mind: WeedHub started in 2019 and has plans to evolve into a resource for both consumers and producers. A startup like WeedHub strikes me as a better barometer of the real growth in Thai ganja. WeedHub has designed a slick weed search engine with a smart blog.
They want to be the ones you run to find any cannabis product or service, anywhere in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or Australia.
I’m talking about the company and I’m talking about their data, and how it could provide important empirical detail to back up wider claims about – one more time with feeling – real growth in Thai ganja.
WeedHub’s platform growth could work as an expanding digital mirror of real growth in the sector. What the platform reflects is simple, unassailable: What do things cost? What are the prices? How badly do people want weed? How much weed is available now? 6 months from now? How long does it take to sell? And so on.
Assuming they stay in business and are willing to share the numbers, in addition to helping ganja consumers and producers, WeedHub could provide tranches of data to help us (me) clarify what makes real growth happen in Thai ganja.
The startup was founded by Kotaro Ise and Goh, both serial entrepreneurs
WeedHub’s model is logical, like tracing inevitable steps forward in growing the local and international cannabis market. They are first on the field. If Thai ganja wins, they win.
They are already thinking about future moves, betting on the continued relaxation of weed laws in Thailand and eventually across Asia.
We will be launching our WeedHubX Accelerator in Bangkok to empower the region’s cannabis-related startups, as well as WeedHub Festival/PopUp Market, our end-to-end e-commerce platform, and more.
I question the time horizon for their vision of the future as a world of legalized adult-use weed, starting with their neighbors and expanding outwards across Asia. But hey, it’s not like an overly optimistic vision of the speed of legalization in Asia hurts their basic product/service proposition.
Cannabis in Southeast Asia
About the platform’s current coverage: Yes, Cambodia and Laos are expressing enthusiasm for cannabis, but these are low-income countries with terrible infrastructure and negligible resources for R&D. Backpackers in either country can point to cannabis for purchase cheaply on the black market with relatively low risk (assuming one is not in a dangerous area, to begin with). Not at all clear whether there is room for or interest in a legit market.
Vietnam is a wildcard in that legalization is not on the agenda, yet marijuana use seems to be quietly permitted in a Saigon meets Amsterdam kind of way. One can find out of the way cafes and bars that offer cannabis flowers and edibles, none of which is on the up and up. Nevertheless, these are businesses that can fit the forms of WeedHub’s database, (and in some cases already have).
Australia is the outlier, and a special challenge is that cannabis there is advanced in a way that’s more akin to the North American market. Can WeedHub compete in Australia? WeedHub is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, which is a big deal. Is there something like it in Australia already?
I like WeedHub’s primary revenue model; the launch of WeedHub X leaves me with questions. X seems based on a vision of a steady evolution of weed-freedom flowing into the future, culminating in pan-Asian marijuana legalization within 10 years. Changing attitudes and lifted restrictions. I don’t see it. The question for X is, will there be a critical mass of cannabis producers across Asia to make its service/product appealing? OK, the answer is yes, someday – but when?
My take
WeedHub has local partners to take care of payments, logistics and so on in all these countries. IF they can meet the challenge of aggregating the comparatively humongous Australian market while growing in Asia, then the company should expect a steady revenue stream through placement fees.
WeedHub is looking for investors. Before lockdowns brought the economy to the edge of collapse, the group was in talks with several (non-VC) sources. No one has mentioned subscriptions as a revenue source, so right now it’s all on advertising’s shoulders.
The platform is positioned precisely where the flow of foreign capital meets the trend of Thai consumers as some of the most digitized in South Asia. WeedHub provides both logistics and status that center around a robust search engine. If they can stick it out, the company’s reach could extend from Thailand to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and in time even Myanmar. – all of which have markets where WeedHub’s aggregations will – eventually – be a great service to both consumers and producers.
A new ganja market requires dependable, relevant real-time information flow. Whatever the speed of cannabis legalization across Asia, WeedHub’s core value proposition remains.
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