Thailand’s ‘weed wild west’ faces new guidelines as smuggling to UK rises

JUNE 26 – Thailand is attempting to rein in its free-wheeling marijuana market.

The authorities has accredited new measures, which can quickly limit consumption of the drug to these with a physician’s prescription – within the hope that this may assist regulate an business some describe as uncontrolled.

The public well being minister has additionally stated that consumption of marijuana shall be criminalised once more, though it’s unclear when that would occur.

Ever because the drug was decriminalised in 2022, there was a frenzy of funding.

There at the moment are round 11,000 registered hashish dispensaries in Thailand. In elements of the capital Bangkok it’s not possible to flee the lurid inexperienced glare of their neon indicators and the fixed odor of individuals smoking their merchandise.

In the well-known backpacker district of Khao San Road, within the historic royal quarter, there’s a complete shopping center devoted to promoting hallucinogenic flower heads or marijuana equipment.

Derivative merchandise like brownies and gummies are supplied overtly on-line – though that is technically unlawful – and may be delivered to your door inside an hour.

There has been speak of proscribing the business earlier than. The largest social gathering within the authorities coalition needed to place hashish again on the record of proscribed narcotics after it took workplace in 2023, however its former coalition associate, which had made decriminalisation a signature election coverage, blocked this plan.

But the ultimate straw seems to have been strain from the UK, which has seen a flood of Thai marijuana being smuggled into the nation.

It is commonly younger travellers who’re lured by drug syndicates in Britain into carrying suitcases stuffed with it on flights from Thailand.

Last month two younger British girls had been arrested in Georgia and Sri Lanka, with giant quantities of marijuana from Thailand. Both now face lengthy jail sentences.

“It’s massively elevated over the past couple of years,” says Beki Wright, spokesperson on the National Crime Agency in London (NCA). The NCA says 142 couriers carrying 5 tonnes had been intercepted in 2023. This quantity shot as much as 800 couriers in 2024 carrying 26 tonnes, and that quantity has continued to rise this yr.

“We actually need to cease individuals doing this. Because in case you are stopped, on this nation or many others, you face life-changing penalties, for one thing a lot of them assume is low-risk. If you convey illicit medication into the UK you would possibly get via the primary time, however you’ll ultimately be discovered, and you’ll almost certainly go to jail.”

So far this yr, 173 individuals accused of smuggling hashish – practically all from Thailand – have gone via the court docket system within the UK and acquired sentences totalling 230 years.

The NCA is working along with Thai authorities to attempt to deter younger individuals from being tempted to smuggle hashish to Britain. But this has proved troublesome, due to the only a few laws that exist in Thailand to manage the drug.

“This is a loophole,” says Panthong Loykulnanta, spokesman for the Thai Customs Department.

“The revenue could be very excessive, however the penalties right here usually are not excessive. Most of the time once we catch individuals on the airport they abandon their baggage. But then there isn’t a punishment. If they insist on checking within the baggage, we will arrest them, however they only pay the nice and check out once more.”

The legalisation of hashish in 2022 was imagined to be adopted by the passing of a brand new regulatory framework by the Thai parliament.

But this by no means occurred, partly, says one MP concerned within the drafting course of, due to obstruction by vested pursuits with hyperlinks to the marijuana business. A brand new hashish regulation was drawn up final yr, however it could possibly be two years away from being handed.

The outcome has been a weed wild west, the place nearly something that may become profitable out of marijuana is tolerated.

There has additionally been an inflow of overseas drug syndicates hiding behind Thai nominees, rising large portions of potent marijuana strains in brightly-lit, air-conditioned containers.

This has flooded the market and pushed the worth down, which is what has attracted the smugglers.

Even if greater than half the individuals carrying marijuana get stopped, they will nonetheless become profitable from what will get via to the UK due to a lot larger costs there.

“You can not have a free-for-all, proper? This grew to become a bar combat reasonably than a boxing match,” says Tom Kruesopon, a businessman who was instrumental in legalising marijuana, however now thinks issues have now gone too far.

“When there’s a weed store on each nook, when persons are smoking as they’re strolling down the road, when vacationers are getting excessive on our seashores, different nations being affected by our legal guidelines, with individuals delivery it illegally – these are negatives.”

He argues that the proposed new public well being ministry laws will limit provide and demand, and restore the business to what it was at all times meant to be, targeted solely on the medical use of marijuana.

There is loads of opposition to this notion from hashish fans who imagine the brand new guidelines will do nothing to curb smuggling or unlicensed growers.

They say the measures will wipe out small-scale companies who’re already struggling due to the glut attributable to over-production.

Earlier this month, many of those smaller growers descended on the prime minister’s workplace in Bangkok to ship a proper criticism to the federal government, calling for a extra sensitively regulated business, and never simply what they imagine is a knee-jerk response to overseas criticism.

“I completely perceive that the federal government might be getting yelled at throughout worldwide conferences,” says Kitty Chopaka, probably the most vocal advocate for smaller producers.

“Countries saying ‘All your weed is getting smuggled into our nation,’ that’s fairly embarrassing. But proper now they don’t seem to be even implementing the foundations that exist already. If they did, that will most likely mitigate plenty of the problems like smuggling, or sale with out a licence.”

The collapse in costs compelled her earlier this yr to shut down her hashish dispensary, one of many first to open three years in the past.

Parinya Sangprasert, one of many growers on the protest, argues that the unlawful growers are already working exterior the regulation in Thailand – and can ignore the brand new laws as properly.

He is emphatic that folks can not come to his farm and simply purchase 46kg (101 lbs) of marijuana – the amount sometimes carried in two suitcases by the “mules” attempting to achieve the UK.

On his telephone he introduced up a duplicate of the official type he has to fill in each time he makes a sale.

“If you need to purchase or promote a considerable amount of hashish, you want a licence, issued by our authorities. Every weed store should get hold of this to purchase marijuana, and there are data saved of which farm it’s from and who it was offered to.”

In the meantime, Thai customs officers are persevering with their efforts to stem the flood of hashish although their airports.

They are utilizing intelligence gathered on journey patterns to focus on potential smugglers, and dissuade them from checking of their tainted baggage, and risking harsh jail sentences of their vacation spot nations.

They are more and more utilizing the requirement for a licence to purchase, promote or export portions of marijuana to prosecute these they intercept, however the punishment is never greater than a nice.

And the confiscated suitcases, stuffed with vacuum-sealed packages of dried marijuana heads, with names like “Runtz” and “Zkittlez”, nonetheless pile up in backrooms on the airports. There had been round 200 in a single room the BBC was allowed into, containing between two to 3 tonnes, taken in simply the previous month.

By BBC