Thailand's government has implemented strict regulations on cannabis sales, requiring prescriptions for all buds just three years after legalizing the plant. The new measures aim to limit recreational use and potentially reintegrate cannabis into the controlled narcotics list. This policy shift has significantly decreased customer traffic in dispensaries, with owners fearing for their livelihoods. Shops that thrived under previous regulations are now facing closures as the government moves to prohibit sports for recreational use, leaving many workers in jeopardy.
Even at the Nana intersection, a pulsating mecca of this megacity's seamy nightlife scene, the Wonderland cannabis shop is hard to miss. Its sprawling, ruby-pink signboard screams across the busy crossroads, broadcasting the wares inside with the help of neon lights twisted into luminescent marijuana leaves.
Just days earlier, Thailand's government imposed new rules sharply curbing the sale of cannabis, only three years after decriminalising the plant with much fanfare and unleashing a billion-dollar business in the process.
Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin has announced his intention to place the plant back on the country's controlled narcotics list within 45 days, putting it in the company of cocaine, heroin and meth.
A lot of people have this as their main job, and they need it to survive. If we follow the rules, we could [have to] close, he said.
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