506

Thailand moves to ban recreational cannabis use, 18 months after historic decriminalization (www.cnn.com)

submitted 5 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

133 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Thailand’s new government is moving ahead to pass new legisalation banning cannabis for recreational use in a major reversal 18 months after the country became the first in Asia to decriminalize the plant.

The relaxed laws saw a lucrative cannabis industry catering to locals and foreigners alike boom across the Southeast Asian nation, but a new conservative coalition government came to power late last year vowing to tighten the rules and only allow medical use.

A draft bill was released on Tuesday by Thailand’s health ministry outlining hefty fines or prison sentences of up to one year for offenders – or both.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] mibo80@lemm.ee 238 points 5 months ago

Banning something enjoyable that harms no one and has nil impact on society - just conservative things.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 71 points 5 months ago

Ain't nothing more conservative than banning fun.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 32 points 5 months ago

You know what's even worse than conservatives? People who vote for them.

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] SheeEttin@programming.dev 14 points 5 months ago

*regressive

[-] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 12 points 5 months ago

Potato tomato

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (11 replies)

[-] _number8_@lemmy.world 138 points 5 months ago

why are people still so backwards about this? what's the point? everyone uses caffeine and/or alcohol and that's fine but weed is horrible and bad? just blatantly denying reality

[-] ono@lemmy.ca 48 points 5 months ago

In most places, there's money in enforcement, and power in disenfranchisement.

I don't know what Thailand-specific motives might be in play here, if any.

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 18 points 5 months ago

And tobacco.

I think the idea is that they can't fight a war on those drugs since they're already there, but they can still win against the others by keeping them out.

It helps when you have relatively tight borders and your neighbours agree.

[-] Rediphile@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 months ago

I smoked weed in Thailand as a 15 year old in like 2006 lol. It's always been there and always will be.

I've also smoked hash in Saudi Arabia. I have yet to find a single country in which I could not find cannabis in if around for more than a week or two. Literally no one has ever won the war on drugs or even come close.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (47 replies)

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 116 points 5 months ago

A pity. That country is very dependent on tourism and really hasn't recovered since the virus.

There is something about being high as a kite in Bangkok and eating one of the best meals of your life from a stand for a 100 Bhat.

[-] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 33 points 5 months ago

Yeah I agree, it's sad.

When I heard they had legalised weed I thought it was a really clever move.

There were some other changes to visas around the same time which made Thailand a really great destination for young remote workers. I remember thinking how unusual it was for a south east asian country to be so progressive.

Now they're going to shoot themselves in the foot just because they're worried about what people might think.

[-] Pandantic@midwest.social 73 points 5 months ago

Did I miss it? Was there a reason given or is it just the new “conservative coalition” doesn’t like it?

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 76 points 5 months ago

Right-wing gonna hate. Conservatives just got nothin else to do.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 38 points 5 months ago

You can't be a conservative without hating things that make people happy while allowing things that make people sick like alcohol, cigarettes, and motor vehicles.

[-] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 5 months ago

It was part of their election campaign I presume. Vote for us and we will walk back the law.

I've spent a lot of time in South East Asia and I've found most south east asian cultures to be deeply pretentious. It's fine to live in a shoe box provided that you're carrying an iPhone, et cetera.

A lot of Thais felt that legalisation had meant that the world suddenly identified Thailand as some kind of "drug country", which is absolutely unacceptable to many Thais.

It's not a question of whether weed ought to be legal, it's a question of whether Thai people wish to be thought of as some kind of junkie nation.

load more comments (8 replies)

load more comments (5 replies)

[-] Ohi@lemmy.world 49 points 5 months ago

What year is it?!

[-] verdantbanana@lemmy.world 36 points 5 months ago

think we replaying the 1920s right now all over the world progress is going backwards at a phenomenal rate

[-] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 28 points 5 months ago

Conservatives should really be called something like Regressionists

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 34 points 5 months ago

"God forbid we do something good for society!" - Conservatives

[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 34 points 5 months ago

Nothing good in all of human history has ever come from conservatism. Nothing at all.

[-] BeerMedic@lemmy.world 29 points 5 months ago

Dumb

[-] robocall@lemmy.world 26 points 5 months ago

lame!

load more comments

this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024

506 points (98.1% liked)

World News

37340 readers

3788 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect!
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.