Thailand: prescription-only flower, corrected possession offence, 1991-2026 history

Thailand treats more thansets a 30 grams as intent to sell-gram threshold for high-THC extracts, not flower

A February 2024 health ministry notification in the Royal Gazette classed possession of more thanset 30 grams,000 mg or 30 millilitresml as intentthe quantity separating personal use from dealing for Category 5 THC extracts above 0.2%. Cannabis flower was not a narcotic at the time, so the 30-gram figure did not apply to distributeit; secondary accounts that applied it to flower were wrong.

Pattaya News — Thai Royal Gazette announces quantities of narcotic drugs (12 February 2024) Wikipedia — Cannabis in Thailand

Since 2526 June 2025 cannabis flower ishas been a '"controlled herb'. Possessing it lawfully", and lawful possession requires a validPT 33 prescription from a Thai-licensed practitioner, which names naming the product and quantity and lasts about, for no more than 30 days. Without one[@tilleke,thaiger] Unauthorised possession is no longer permitted —not a sharp reversal fromclear standalone criminal offence: the 2022–1999 Act's penalty covers unlicensed sale, processing, export or research, not simple possession, and the 2025 free-notice regulates sale rather than possession.[@tilleke] The flower can be seized and the seller prosecuted. Extracts with more than 0.2% THC remain narcotics, with up to two years and a 40,000 baht fine for-all personal possession.[@tilleke]

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After the 2022 delisting, households couldHouseholds may grow cannabis after notifying the authoritiesregistering through a government appthe Plookganja system, andbut the plant itselfharvested flower is not a narcoticcontrolled herb and cannot be sold without a licence. Selling any harvest requires[@tilleke,khaosod] Commercial cultivation, processing and sale require a section 46 licence and certified cultivation standards,; unlicensed cultivation or sale carries up to one year and rules have been tightening with each new noticea 20,000 baht fine.[@tilleke]

Breaches of the controlled-herb rules are punished with fines and up to a year in prison rather than narcotics-law sentences.[@tilleke] Bringing cannabis into or out of the country is treated as trafficking.[@thaiger]

Supplying flower to someone without a prescription is an offence under the controlled-herb rules, whether or not money changes hands.[@tilleke]

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Smoking in public is an offence with a fine of up to 25,000 baht.[@thaiger] Smoking inside shops is banned.[@thaiger] Use is officially limited to medical purposes, in private.[@thaiger]

label Public smoking · treatment civil · term Public smoking · fine 25000 · note Fine of up to 25,000 baht; use limited to medical purposes in private

Shops still exist, but from 2026 only medical facilities, pharmacies, herbal-product retailers and traditional healers' premises may sell, with a licensed practitioner on site who issues the prescription.[@edge] Of more than 18,000 registered outlets, over 7,000 closed during 2025 rather than renew, and authorities are moving against roughly 6,000 unlicensed or expired outlets.[@khaosod] A draft Cannabis and Hemp Act that would restrict cannabis strictly to medical use finished public consultation in June 2026.[@nation] The Cabinet approved the bill on 22 September 2026 and sent it to parliament; it would also make growers register their plantations and raise penalties.[@nation]

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Licences for cultivation, processing, export and sale are available, but growers supplying dispensaries must meet certified medical-grade standards, and licences are now limited to healthcare-type businesses.[@khaosod,tilleke]

The medical route is the whole legal system now: doctors, Thai traditional medicine practitioners and other licensed professionals can prescribe, often on site at the dispensary.[@thaiger] Foreign prescriptions are not recognised.[@thaiger] Flower is sold on prescription; extracts with more than 0.2% THC remain narcotics, THC edibles are tightly limited, and CBD products under the threshold are sold without prescription.[@tilleke]

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No criminal record follows from lawful medical use, and thousands of earlier cannabis prisoners were released in 2022.[@tilleke] Driving under the influence is an offence, and the legal position has changed several times in three years, leaving users exposed to sudden rule changes.[@khaosod]

A 2025 law-firm guide lists cannabis and hemp plants, seeds and unprocessed parts other than the flowers as deregulated; only the flower is a controlled herb.[@tg25] Importing seed is governed by the Department of Agriculture's rules.[@tg25] The guide does not address the sale of live plants.[@tg25]

The best-documented illegal trade is export.[@ks25] In March 2025 police at Chiang Mai airport seized more than 100 kg of cannabis flower in f … mmander said smugglers had moved from Phuket to Bangkok to Chiang Mai as checks tightened.[@ks25] Since then sale has been narrowed to medical channels: rules in force in 2026 allow only registered health facilities, pharmacies and herbal shops to hold licences, and require a prescription of at most 30 days.[@ks26] No figure for unlicensed sales since the change was found.[@ks26]

No cannabis clubs are known; Thailand's cannabis trade runs through licensed shops, which are businesses and not members' clubs.[@tilleke] Supplying flower to someone without a prescription is an offence whether or not money changes hands, which leaves no room for a club sharing its own harvest.[@tilleke]

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Tourists are held to the same rule as residents: since June 2025 cannabis flower may be bo … d Thai medical professional, for at most 30 days' supply, and recreational use is illegal.[@tat2025] The tourism authority tells visitors to buy only through authorised channels and warns that unlicensed shops aimed at tourists may be operating illegally.[@tat25] Taking cannabis out of the country without permission from the authorities is against Thai law, the health minister said in May 2025, as cases of tourists caught smuggling it out rose.[@euronews25] A deportation regulation in force since 28 August 2026 allows foreigners to be deported wi … contrary to public order or good morals, and introduces the possibility of re-entry bans.[@newland26]

The Royal Thai Police reported 203,637 people arrested for drug offences between 1 October 2025 and 31 May 2026, over 20 per cent more than a year earlier, and 16,419 drug networks broken up.[@pm26] The seizures it listed were of methamphetamine tablets, crystal methamphetamine, ecstasy and ketamine; cannabis, removed from the narcotics list in 2022, does not appear in the report.[@pm26]

Thailand — Land Traffic Act B.E. 2522, sections 43, 43 bis and 160 tris 12 unchanged

THB

label Prescribed flower · treatment legal · term Controlled herb · note PT 33 prescription, maximum 30 days; no criminal record, label Flower without a prescription · treatment tolerated · term Controlled herb · note No clear standalone possession offence; seizure and seller prosecution, label Extract over 0.2% THC for personal use · treatment criminal · term Narcotic · prison 2 years · fine 40000

THB

label Registered household growing · treatment legal · term Registered growing · note Plookganja registration; flower controlled after harvest, label Commercial cultivation without a licence · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed cultivation · prison 1 year · fine 20000

THB

label Sale without a prescription or licence · treatment criminal · term Unlicensed sale · prison 1 year · fine 20000, label Export or import without permission · treatment criminal · term Smuggling · prison 1 year · fine 20000 · note Customs law can add up to ten years or a 500,000 baht fine, label Extract over 0.2% THC without a licence · treatment criminal · term Narcotic · prison 5 years · fine 500000

strict

Hemp fibre, stalks, roots, leaves and seeds sit outside the narcotic list, but hemp flower is regulated separately from fibre and the 2025 controlled-herb notice covers cannabis flower.[@tilleke] No general low-THC flower exemption was verified, and commercial growing still needs a licence.[@tilleke]

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impairment

The Land Traffic Act punishes driving while impaired by alcohol or another intoxicant, including cannabis, with up to one year and a 5,000 to 20,000 baht fine, plus licence suspension.[@traffic] Extracts above 0.2% THC remain narcotics, so driving after using them falls under the separate narcotics-driving provision.[@traffic] There is no per-se THC limit, and police lack an approved testing protocol, so enforcement turns on observed impairment.[@traffic]

traffic

Cannabis in Thailand is known as [ganja](/culture/language/ganja/), and the 2022–2025 dispensary boom created a new [dispensary](/culture/language/dispensary/) culture that the 2025 medical rules then narrowed.[@tilleke] Thai [landrace](/culture/language/landrace/) varieties and the [Hmong hemp cloth](/culture/traditions/hmong-hemp-cloth/) tradition long predate the modern market.[@tilleke] Cannabis also entered [South-East Asian cooking](/culture/traditions/south-east-asian-cooking/) and, in the reform years, the political identity of [Anutin Charnvirakul](/culture/people/anutin-charnvirakul/).[@thaiger]

tilleke, thaiger