Thailand has had an amazing year in 2023 in terms of tourism, even overtaking Malaysia as the ASEAN country with the most global tourists thanks to Malaysians visiting their country.
Though, even with tax cuts for alcohol and entertainment venues set for 2024 to further boost tourism, will their next move cause potential tourists to start changing their travel plans to other destinations?
According to a report by SCMP, the Thai government is planning on banning the recreational use of cannabis after removing it from the list of banned narcotics in June 2022 while under a different government. This will pave their way towards only having the substance for health and medical purposes.
The Thai Health Minister explained that a new bill, which bans the recreational use of cannabis, will be brought up at their cabinet meeting next week.
“The new bill will be amended from the existing one to only allow the use of cannabis for health and medical purposes,”
“The use for fun is considered wrong”, he said.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who came into power in August 2023, had often shared his opinions against the recreational use of marijuana and had warned that it would lead to “wider narcotic drug problems”.
People are agreeing with the move!
Many have since also called for stricter legislation as marijuana’s decriminilisation led to an influx of cannabis shops opening all over Thailand.
Attendees of the recent Coldplay gig in Bangkok had even taken to social media to complain about how “the entire concert smelled like marijuana”.
Thailand could have potentially been thriving on cannabis tourism. How do you think this move is going to affect them? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
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