Cannabis dispensaries must become medical clinics

Time Out

03-07-2025

When Thailand decriminalised cannabis in 2022, it wasn't just legislation that shifted – it was the entire mood. Overnight, the country known for some of the world's most punitive drug laws became Asia's green frontier. Khao San Road turned into a sort of tropical Amsterdam, only stickier. Shopfronts hawked pre-rolls beside pad Thai stalls. Dispensaries popped up like convenience stores, each promising 'wellness' with a wink.
But the regular high didn't last. This year, just three years after the grand opening, the shutters are being pulled back down – slowly, bureaucratically, but unmistakably. The Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine now insists dispensaries must transition into medical clinics. A doctor on-site, a clinic licence, prescription slips. Paperwork over pleasure. The message is clear: fun time's over.
The irony, of course, is that many of these shops had licences. Around 18,000, in fact. But of those, only a fraction qualify as actual medical facilities. Come November, roughly 12,000 will be up for renewal – and unless they conform to the new rules, they'll go the way of the hookah bars before them. Another boom gone bust.
The government says it's a necessary correction. There are concerns, after all. Kids getting high. Tourists lighting up on beaches like it's a full moon party every night. A whiff of moral panic, served with a side of public health anxiety. The kind of thing that gets talked about at dinner tables and school meetings.
But then, it was never really about medicine, was it? The fanfare in 2022 wasn't about doctors or dosage forms. It was about a new kind of freedom. The legalisation was free, yes, and it cracked open something – a rare moment when Thailand let loose. When old norms gave way to something riskier, greener, less scripted. The new regulations want to write the script back in – sober, clinical, controlled.
One could argue it's damage control. That things went too far, too fast. But there's something uncomfortable about watching a country recoil from its own permissiveness. It reveals how fragile progress can be, how quickly reform is repackaged as a misstep.
Perhaps the bigger question isn't whether weed should be recreational or medicinal. It's why freedom, once granted, is so quickly deemed dangerous. What does it say when a society allows liberation – only to fear its consequences?