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Thailand

Asia

Tolerant

#20 of 196 worldwide
#1 of 48 in Asia

Recreational: Partly legal / toleratedMedical: Legal

Removed from the narcotics list in 2022, creating thousands of dispensaries. Since June 2025 flower is a controlled herb that requires a prescription, and from 2026 shops must operate as medical premises with a practitioner on site. Recreational use is officially no longer permitted.

Score breakdown ▏world average

Select a segment to show or hide the exact rules and sources.

Possession · 25%2/10

adds 5.0 of 25 points

Since 25 June 2025 cannabis flower is a 'controlled herb'. Possessing it lawfully requires a valid prescription from a licensed practitioner, which names the product and quantity and lasts about 30 days. Without one, possession is no longer permitted — a sharp reversal from the 2022–2025 free-for-all.

Personal cultivation · 25%3/10

adds 7.5 of 25 points

After the 2022 delisting, households could grow after notifying the authorities through a government app, and the plant itself is not a narcotic. Selling any harvest requires a licence and certified cultivation standards, and rules have been tightening with each new notice.

Punishment & enforcement · 20%4/10

adds 8.0 of 20 points

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

Sharing & gifting · 10%1/10

adds 1.0 of 10 points

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

Consumption · 10%2/10

adds 2.0 of 10 points

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

The Thaiger — Cannabis in Thailand 2026: the new medical-only rules

Legal access · 10%3/10

adds 3.0 of 10 points

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. 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. A draft Cannabis and Hemp Act that would restrict cannabis strictly to medical use finished public consultation in June 2026. 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.

More context not part of the score

Commercial production

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.

Products

Flower is sold on prescription. Extracts containing more than 0.2% THC remain classed as narcotics, which rules out most concentrates, and THC edibles are tightly limited. CBD products under the threshold are sold without prescription.

Medical use

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. Foreign prescriptions are not recognised.

Other consequences

No criminal record follows from lawful medical use, and thousands of earlier cannabis prisoners were released in 2022. 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.

All sources

Last updated: 4 October 2026