BANGKOK: When Thailand became the first South-East Asian nation to decriminalise cannabis, in 2022, it ignited a “green rush”, swiftly reshaping the economic landscape and challenging long-held cultural norms.
Dispensaries proliferated in urban centres 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.
Legal cannabis, a more than US$1 billion a year industry in Thailand, offered them a lucrative pivot these past few years. Now the industry has been thrown into chaos after the Thai government announced an abrupt legislative backtrack in late June.
The country moved to restrict cannabis use to medicinal purposes by requiring prescriptions and to cap volumes at a 30-day supply per customer. Keen to crack down on a surge in cannabis tourism, smuggling and underage recreational smoking, Thailand is also expected to draft rules requiring that each dispensary has a doctor on-site; it might even move to reclassify the herb as a Category 5 narcotic.
With stricter controls on sales and distribution ahead, the mountainous communities and the operations’ backers are bracing for real pain, from lower demand to widespread unemployment. Some Hmong farmers worry they’ll have to revert to less profitable and dirtier crops, such as corn, where farmers traditionally burn the fields after harvest, contributing to northern Thailand’s worsening air pollution.
Still, Chokwan Kitty Chopaka, president of Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future, an advocacy group, is hopeful the agricultural communities won’t give up the practice altogether.
“The Hmong people have always been the keepers of seeds,” she says. “Hopefully they will continue to keep it safe.” - Bloomberg
