Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, it is basically kind of an opinion piece here; in fact I think I will put this up as an opinion piece. It's time to get this Cannabis issue right or leave it alone. There should have been like maybe a title/subtitle or just leave it be. Stop messing with it and especially messing with it in legally illegitimate ways. 

As I've discussed in other videos, look Cannabis was pulled off the Narcotics list at a time when Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul then Public Health Minister, pulled it off the list and did so using emergency powers under the Emergency Decree which came about from promulgated law under the Communicable Diseases Act that we were dealing with end of 2022 in response to the so-called COVID pandemic, which I am not going to get into a big background on the definition of Covid as a pandemic, which that was already problematic. But whatever, we were under Emergency Decree, and it was properly implemented and during that time period, Mr. Anutin in a rather brilliant move, removed Cannabis from the Narcotics List, placed a couple of rules on Cannabis' use, again under emergency powers. Then that Emergency Decree ended. Those emergency powers were extinguished and that left cannabis legal in much the same way that alcohol is legal in Thailand where you need an ID; you need to prove that you are of age. You can't sell it to pregnant women because that would be harmful, and that was it. Those were the rules. You had to get licensed to be able to sell. Again, those were the rules, and those rules were set and set up under the emergency powers which were based on promulgated Parliamentary Law or a Parliamentary Act. But subsequent to that, there have been all of these attempts at making rules and regulations even though there's no law on it. And per what is called the Doctrine of Codification in a Civil Law system, if you want to make something illegal, Parliament has to promulgate a law making it explicitly illegal. It's not just this arbitrary and capricious 'because we say so' nonsense which did happen in the waning days of what I call the rump coalition government which existed up till a couple of weeks ago when they were thrown out as a result of Ms. Paetongtarn Shinawatra's leaked phone call and a whole bunch of other machinations of that government, but one of the things that they were doing is after Bhumjaithai's exit from the coalition, they started messing with Cannabis without any real legal authority to do so, just on a 'because we say so' basis. Again pursuant to the Doctrine of Codification, in a Civil Law country, if you want to restrict something, you need to pass a law through Parliament; that's due process. That hasn't happened. In fact 18 months ago when they talked about this before, and by the way Mr. Anutin kind of put this back in his rightful place, they said, they said we are going to pass a law, we are going to put it through Parliament. They never did. Probably because they know that a law in Parliament might not go the way that they want it to go.

That said, quoting directly from a recent article in the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Health Ministry pledges to review weed laws. Quoting directly: "The Minister of Public Health (MOPH) has pledged to review restrictive Cannabis regulations following mounting pressure from the group "Writing Thailand's Cannabis Future," - yeah, and good work by those folks, tip of the hat to them. Lord's work you are doing out there. - Quoting further: which has urged swift government action to revive the struggling industry." Quoting further: "Led by Secretary General Prasitchai Nunuan and chairwoman Chokwan Chopaka, the group met senior health officials, including Deputy Permanent Secretary Dr. Sakda Alapach, at the Public Health Ministry on Wednesday. They also submitted letters to Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat calling for the reversal of measures imposed under former Minister Somsak Thepsutin of the Phue Thai Party, which they said had destroyed the Cannabis sector. The network demanded revocation of the 2025 Ministerial Announcement.” Note that. It is just an announcement; it is not based on any promulgated Parliamentary Law. It is just "we say this". It has no force and effective law.

As I discussed in another video on this topic, there was a recent article in the Pattaya Mail, we will pull it up, where it said the police aren't doing anything because they have received no instructions - we will put the actual line on screen here.  Well you know why they haven't done anything? There is no law through Parliament. That is where this has to be promulgated. The police know this, that in order for there to be law enforcement, you have to have a law and there isn't one here. What the actions of the Public Health Ministry in the waning days of the rump coalition, frankly were pretty unconscionable, and they clearly operated in direct violation of basic notions of legal procedure here in Thailand, but as well as in any Civil Law jurisdiction. Quoting further: "The network demanded revocation of the 2025 Ministerial Announcement classifying Cannabis as a controlled herb and a reinstatement of the 2022 version enacted under Mr. Anutin's tenure." 

Well I would argue that when he did that, that was done under good law. This thing that happened in 2025, this “announcement”, that wasn't apropos of anything, it wasn't based on any law, it wasn't anything. Ignore it, it's not good law. As the police have said, they haven't been instructed. They haven't been instructed because there is no law. Quoting further: "That regulation allowed Cannabis sales without medical prescriptions and through registered shops, instead of restricting transactions to licensed clinics, Mr. Prasitchai said." And again, they didn't have the authority to make that “announcement’, so it therefore shouldn’t have, and in my mind does not have any legal effect. Meanwhile, again this whole notion that you need a prescription for this, where are the prescriptions for alcohol? This whole, "oh, recreational Cannabis, that's such a problem." No, that's nonsense. If I want to partake of Cannabis, I am a grown man, okay. I don't need a prescription; I don't need to go through the hypocritical farce of saying that I have some kind of medical problem in order to partake of this particular good, of this particular product. Do I need to go say I have a headache in order to have a beer? I have to go to some doctor and say, "oh, I have got a headache, I need a beer." No, you don't. Look, grown people can recreationally imbibe things that they want to, that's the mark of a free society. Quoting further: quote: "The Ministry should abolish the current regulation within two weeks," Mr. Prasitchai said. "If not, we will take the matter directly to the Prime Minister who initiated the policy."

I agree with his sentiments, but I would go a step further and say, “doesn't” need to be implemented. That was bad policy, bad law to begin with. It should just be ignored because it's not legitimate. It is not a regulation stemming from a promulgated law; therefore it is not something we need to worry about in the first place anyway. The 2022 enactment that Mr. Anutin did it that time under emergency power should be controlling because that was based on good law and in the aftermath of the Emergency Decree ending still holds, and if you want to change that fact, put something through Parliament, promulgate a law through there through due process and then somebody like me or myself specifically, I'll abide by that law, but until such time as I see an actual passed law, all of this talk of announcements or whatever else, it's just a bunch of nonsense.