Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing some questions about Cannabis and specifically some recent remarks from the Prime Minister here in Thailand; actually I believe he was in France when he made these remarks. That said, they were talking greatly about Cannabis and let me just dive into it. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Jail time to return for Cannabis players as Srettha describes the trade as a threat to the country. Which just! Really? “With all the problems we have got, Cannabis is the big threat to the country? Okay! Quoting further: "Thai PM Srettha vows crackdown on Cannabis trade, labeling it as a massive threat to the Kingdom. Calls for the return of jail time. (Let me just keep going) Exclusive interview details on France 24 as Mr. Srettha gives key insights into his role as Prime Minister and his government's plans.” 

Well the first thing I would say is we have had this discussion already. Parliament is going through the process of dealing with this. I don't understand, I really don't understand politicians at the end of the day because on the one hand they'll say, "Well we need to trust the process and we need to deal with dadada," and then they won't. They'll just kind of ignore the process when it suits them. Quoting further: "In a revealing interview with France 24 aired in the last few days, the Thai Prime Minister spoke in English. In a wide ranging to and fro with the international French news channel's correspondent in Bangkok, Matt Hunt, the Prime Minister gave a revealing insight into his views on the future of Cannabis in Thailand and an exchange with French President Emmanuel Macron over the real danger posed to world peace by Russia.” (not even going to get into that). Quoting further: "During the interview Mr. Srettha made it clear the Thailand will stamp out the current free-wheeling liberal atmosphere." Yeah let's stamp out the freewheeling liberal atmosphere. “At street level regarding the sale and consumption of Cannabis or marijuana. Through a number of emphatic statements, Mr. Srettha described the trade as highly damaging to the country and certainly not a positive for the Kingdom's economy at all." Okay, stopping there. Where is the data for any of those assertions? Seriously. I have got the producer of these videos back to cracking up right now but again "highly damaging to the country and certainly not a positive for the Kingdom's economy at all." Really? As I have been sitting here watching from the time the government had us all shut down for years over something they said was an absolute necessity, which in retrospect now clearly looks like it was not. Now whatever you think of those times and the reasoning behind doing what we did, it was most assuredly an over exaggeration which I think this whole thing is an over exaggeration about the "dangers and perils" of Cannabis and then the dismissal of the economic impact of this as if it's been nothing. We have done the videos on this. Within seven weeks of legalization here in Thailand, economically speaking there was an industry with a market cap of a billion dollars that appeared in Thailand's economy, basically overnight. You're telling me that is no economic impact? Really? And that's seven weeks after this thing was initiated. You are telling me all of those shops that are taking up commercial retail real estate space has no impact on the economy.

"He also appeared to countenance the return of prison sentences for those in the trade." Well what a grand idea! Let's lock up a bunch of people for selling something that grows out of the ground. The one thing that the Government really got right in the last few years was their stance on this whole issue. However you want to look at decriminalizing, legalizing, it is legalized by the way, but that said, one of the big things that did happen at the time that the legislation or I should say the legislative procedure was promulgated that led to this outcome, one of the things that happened was they released all the people that were in prison on Cannabis related crimes. And I have got to be honest with you, for something that doesn't kill anybody, why were people sitting in prison? More importantly, why were our tax dollars going to pay for people sitting in prison over something like that? It just doesn't make any sense. Quoting further: "There has been a marijuana free-for-all with thousands of shops and cafes throughout Thailand retailing the drug." Here's the interesting thing. First it's not a drug, it's a controlled herb, so let's use precise language if that's how we're going to speak. That being said also I don't ever see anybody talking about a "alcohol free-for-all" with thousands of bars and cafes serving it. That's the other big one that I have loved in the discussion about all this Cannabis stuff is having to do with “recreational use”. No one ever talks about the “recreational use” of alcohol. My big question is perhaps Mr. Srettha might have some interest backing him in certain sectors that are maybe adversely impacted by the legalization and the spread of the business of Cannabis here in Thailand. I would love to know if there perhaps aren't vested interest that may have his ear; it would be interesting to know that. Quoting further: "Certainly, this is the firm opinion of thousands of medics in Thailand." Another question posed by this. Does Cannabis represent a threat not only to alcohol sales but perhaps to big pharmaceutical interests? The question must be asked here. If we are going to have the honest discussion about this, let's have the honest discussion, not run around talking in hyperbole about how it's the worst thing ever and it did nothing for the economy which is just nonsensical on its face. Quoting further: "Since 2022, they have rushed to protest the Government's liberalization of the drug." Well first of all it's not liberalization, it is legalization; secondly, it's not a drug, it's a controlled herb which is regulated by the Ministry of Public Health. I would like it if the Government instead of engaging in hyperbole, would actually just do their job, that would be kind of nice. The last Minister of Public Health had no problem doing that but whatever, okay. Then meanwhile, I haven't really noticed a rush of doctors running out there to combat this but that said, I ask the question again. Could that be because they have some financial interest in Cannabis NOT being legal? I mean it seems logical to at least ask the question. Quoting further: "In brief, the new provision will make recreational use of Cannabis illegal again." Well first of all they have been talking about that. That has been tabled. It's my understanding we're not even going to see any possible new draft on that until approximately September which again I don't know why both the press as well as these political interests keep talking about this like a foregone conclusion and keep talking about "recreational use" as if it's self-evidently something that needs to be regulated or illegalized. Again nobody's talking about the illegalization of recreational alcohol. So I fail to see the difference really, between the two. I really fail to qualitatively see the difference, other than the fact that Cannabis doesn't kill as many people as alcohol and I think there are statistics out there to back that up. That's my opinion and I am going to leave it as an opinion for now but I think even just anecdotally or commonsensically, one can look around and see, look there are adverse or detrimental impacts that come about as a result of use of both of these products "recreationally" if you want to call it that. Which one has the worst adverse impact? Is it Cannabis or maybe is it alcohol? And I think when you really take a deep dive and look at that question, it looks to me like alcohol has far more adverse side effects to it than Cannabis does. "The plan is to require evidence or medical certification of a clinical need." Well if you were to bring that in when this first came about, I think that that's a fair point doing this sort of medical need thing. The horse is out of the barn at this point. I don't know how you put that back in. I know they think that they can but there's a massive industry out here now; it's at the retail level. Again I think reasonable regulation is absolutely, it's not only encouraged, it is required. We do need some regulation on this but I wish our lawmakers would talk in a serious manner rather than hyperbolically about something that from their comments, it leads me to believe they don't even understand anything about it at all. Quote: 'Cannabis was surprisingly legalized in 2022 in Thailand. The Health Minister has pledged to recriminalize recreational marijuana. It's a huge business today, though. So how do you plan to do that without harming the economy?' In response, the Prime Minister suggested that Cannabis was an economic impediment to Thailand." And again these statements are just boldly asserted. What's the backup for that statement? How is it an impediment? In what way? Is it like a boot on a moving car? Where you put a boot on and you try to drive a car off and it's dragging the wheel along? Where is the impediment? What is the impediment other than just you saying there's an impediment? "He strongly endorsed the new proposed law. Quote: "Harming the economy is a strong word. I don't think it would harm the economy because by legalizing Cannabis, I think that's very harmful to the economy." How? How? But that doesn't even make sense, that statement. Unless there is some kind of backup reasoning as to how it does that other than just the assertion it does that. And it is stated like, the weirdest thing about living in these times especially having gone through COVID, is having to go through this weird like constant inverted gas lighting in the public sphere of things that are self-evidently one way, you are being told aren't. You are constantly: "Oh no that's not the case. Mass have always worked. Well mass never worked; the data was never behind that. "Oh no, they always worked!" and we all just had to deal with that. Then other things that you can sort of self-evidently see like ‘Cannabis is not an impediment to Thailand's economy’, that's stated as if it's in the negative. Again it's like this inverted constant gas lighting. "The Health Ministry is on the right track in doing that.' Well I don't think so. The Health Ministry would be on a much better track trying to figure out how to regulate this. Promulgate some laws that actually regulate it. More importantly, tax it so that we can stop talking about all this "we need to go into massive amounts of debt here in Thailand and then that's going to raise taxes down the road". How about you just tax this new cash crop that we found that overnight had a billion dollar market cap. How about you tax that and regulate that, Government? And then use that money to do what you need to do. Instead of running around talking about it as if it's an impediment to the economy and it's the greatest danger since I don't know, crime itself came about. This is just silliness and really I would really hope for a much more serious and at least contemplative paradigm from the people that are supposed to be there making laws regarding these issues.