Thailand's Changing Cannabis Rules Leave Farmers in a Tough Spot
Economics
With the Southeast Asian nation moving to recriminalize the drug after just three years, the mountainous communities that grow it are bracing for real pain.
When Thailand became the first Southeast Asian nation to decriminalize cannabis, in 2022, it ignited a 'green rush,' swiftly reshaping the economic landscape and challenging long-held cultural norms. Dispensaries proliferated in urban centers such as Bangkok, ballooning to more than 10,000 across the country. But the agricultural communities in the lush northern countryside are perhaps benefiting the most from the burgeoning industry—assuming the government doesn't shut the whole thing down.
In the mountains of northern Thailand, which are blessed with an ideal climate and fertile soil, generations of Hmong and other ethnic minorities have long tended the land, preserving an intimate knowledge of indigenous plants and sustainable cultivation practices. Historically these communities were linked to illicit opium cultivation, before they shifted to more wholesome crops including corn, tea and vegetables starting in the late 1960s.
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