Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are first of all talking about, this is business news. It's going to pertain to Cannabis but understand, I think this has tremendous overarching ramifications for investor sentiment or especially foreign investor sentiment likely in the future with regard to Thailand and just generally, the overall business environment including the real estate sector. This is going to have tremendous ramifications in my opinion. Regarding the title where "government" is in quotation marks, I'm using that term because look as clearly you can see from this channel, I have got real issues with the current Prime Minister based on her conduct regarding talking to the de facto leader if you want to call him that of Cambodia. I have gotten into that in other videos, I am not going to get into that much further over here, but there has been a lot and I have discussed some of this in a prior video as well, where currently they are saying "oh there's still the votes in the coalition government to “prop” her up, whatever. Yeah, well as we discussed in one video specifically, there are the executive boards of these parties have said “yeah, we're behind this” - even in one video they said it was “considered a consensus” which what does that mean? And we are in this kind of lull period right now where Parliament is adjourned so we don't exactly know the status of the current government is what I am trying to say. It will be interesting to see whether the rank and file of these parties are going to be completely lock step behind a lot of these initiatives and behind her, behind this new Coalition. One of the major Coalition parties pulled out; we're in a kind of a fluid situation here. We don't really know what's going on so I have a hard time viewing this current “rump coalition” if you want to call it that, as fully solid. I think time's going to tell. Probably next week we're going to have a good idea what this is really looking like, so that's the reason for putting that in quotes.

That said, I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thai Cannabis stores fear for their future. Move by the government to recriminalize cannabis is shaking up $1-billion industry. Quoting directly: “Tourism operators expect many Cannabis stores across Thailand to be shuttered especially in urban areas leaving only those that supply the herb for medical purposes as the government moves to recriminalise the plant. The Ministry of Public Health issued an order late on Tuesday prohibiting the sale of cannabis for recreational use..’ - yeah that's one that just has been bugging me forever. I've discussed this in other videos. Where is all the concern for recreational use alcohol? We have got alcohol all over the place, but “oh, recreational use cannabis!” Meanwhile, as discussed where do they get the power to just unilaterally say that a plant is now criminalized?  

As I have discussed in other videos, this was pulled off of the narcotics list. It's my understanding you need an Act of Parliament to do this stuff. This is as arbitrary and capricious as saying “oh florists can no longer sell tulips because we view them as narcotics”, and I know that sounds kind of outlandish or absurdist but it's not. It really isn't. I mean if they can just say “oh well because we say so, this is now a narcotic”, what else could they just “because we say so say is a narcotic”? Quoting further: “.. and making it mandatory for all retail purchase to require a doctor's prescription.” Well again, make a law. It was my understanding, some year and a half ago when they tried to do this everybody agreed yeah, we will put it through Parliament. Well what are you doing? Put it through Parliament. You have had time. Or, "oh we just want to do it because we say so!" It is really ridiculous from that perspective. 

Meanwhile quoting further: "The new rules will come into effect once they are published in the Royal Gazette, which could happen within days." It may not happen at all. We don't know. Now again, these "rules" can still be legally challenged; I discussed that in a prior video. Now the Royal Gazette - for those in an American context, that's kind of the, I mean it's not the equivalent exactly, but it is kind of analogous to what we would call the Federal Register back in the United States. That is where laws are officially, effectively the country is officially put on notice that a law has been promulgated if you will. So yeah, once it goes, if it goes through the Royal Gazette which might not be a foregone conclusion, if it does, yeah okay presumptively then they may change enforcement policies etc. but that stuff can still be challenged and I expect a lot of it will be, because as we'll get to here in a moment, 18,000 places have been doing business legally and then overnight because one person said so, it's all going to change because this one Minister of Public Health has now said, well “because I think so it's now a narcotic and therefore all these businesses who detrimentally relied on the public policies and the laws and the rules here in Thailand and have done things legally are suddenly going to be outlaws”. 

Quoting further, and this is from Khao Sod English, that is khaosodenglish.com, Thailand tightens Cannabis control as 18,000 shops must adapt. Under the subheading: Massive Industry Impact. Quote: "More than 18,000 licensed cannabis shops across Thailand will need to overhaul their business practices under the new rules.." – again, rules apropos of what? Based on what? As I have discussed in other videos, and again I guess I am a layman when it comes to Thai Law, but Thai Law is Civil Law. It is based on the notion of the Doctrine of Codification. You have to codify through Parliament presumably, something you want to make illegal. It was delisted it became legal. You want to re-illegalize it, put it through Parliament. You can't just say, in my mind, how can you just say, "oh all these 18,000 businesses are now just illegal because we say so?" And beyond even that, let's really take a look, and this is why I'm titling this Thailand Business News, and it's not specifically about cannabis per se. The world is watching, okay and I'm talking, now Thailand please hear me. People in a public policy position, please hear me. If Thailand shutters 18,000 businesses that from one day to the next, went from being legal to illegal, on the whim of one public servant basically, how is that going to look? What is that going to do to future investor confidence over here? I can't think of anything that looks more arbitrary and capricious than this, and especially for people who invested over here and things. Now if it is put through Parliament, and there has been a debate, people have talked about it, they modify what they are going to do, I think you know investors and things look at that you know down the line - and again I am not just talking about investors in the Cannabis space - Investors across the board are going to be looking at this going, "hey is this a place we want to invest?" We may not be in cannabis, but maybe we are a medical clinics that have nothing to do with cannabis. From one day to the next could they just say, whatever it is we are doing is now illegal? Or what if we want to come in and do microbrewing with alcohol, and they are looking over at cannabis and they are saying, well from one second to the next it just became illegal. What if they say microbrewing is just from one second to the next illegal; I know they have been talking about doing that. And they are also pushing this, or at least sections of the Coalition are pushing this Casino Bill. If you are an investor, even a massive corporate investor in a casino here in Thailand and you look at this and you say, "you know, do we really want to put a billion dollars into Thailand to invest in casinos, which is already controversial when from one second to the next they can just say, no it's not legal anymore, sorry, thanks for the investment but your casino floor is shut down." I don't think this is a great policy I don't think it's being implemented with any foresight or prudence and I don't think this is just going to have ramifications within the Cannabis space. Meanwhile and I think the Bangkok Post article I just cited which I urge those who are watching this video go check that out, they go into the fact that, “oh well, and they talk about all this, “oh, it’s a nuisance, people smoke outside and Thais don't like it, some Thais have complained”. Fine. We have nuisance laws on that; I have made videos about this years ago about the Thai Police who said “hey if you're smoking outside, we are going to arrest you for nuisance”. Start enforcing that. That is already on the books. Stop using that stuff as a pretext to do this because look at the end of the day, this really is an arbitrary and capricious move. I think it's going to have tremendous negative blowback in the especially foreign investment community. The world is watching and this doesn't look great.