Thailand’s political landscape shifted decisively on September 5, 2025, when Anutin Charnvirakul secured appointment as Prime Minister with support from 311 of 492 House Representatives. Under an agreement with the People’s Party, Anutin will serve a four-month term before calling new elections—a brief window that could prove pivotal for the nation’s cannabis industry.
For cannabis stakeholders, Anutin’s appointment brings both relief and uncertainty. As the architect of Thailand’s groundbreaking 2022 cannabis decriminalization, he’s unlikely to continue the systematic dismantling that began in June when he pulled his Bhumjaithai Party from the previous ruling coalition. Yet as a seasoned politician, Anutin recognizes that the current “wild west” cannabis landscape demands regulation focused on medical and therapeutic applications—not prohibition.
Thailand’s regulatory cannabis tightening
This tension between liberalization and control has already begun reshaping the industry. In June 2025, the Public Health Ministry issued sweeping orders intending to transform the regulatory environment. The comprehensive measures include:
- Medical gatekeeping: Cannabis flower sales restricted to medical practitioners serving patients with valid prescriptions.
- Licensing requirements: New permits mandated for studying, exporting, selling, or processing cannabis buds commercially.
- Quality standards: Cannabis flower must be sourced from producers meeting the Department for Development of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine’s GACP standards.
- Location restrictions: Sales banned through vending machines, electronic channels, computer networks, and in religious sites, dormitories, public parks, zoos, and amusement parks.
- Advertising prohibition: All cannabis advertising prohibited.
- Reclassification threat: Officials warned of potential reclassification as a schedule 5 narcotic.
The regulatory package presents a complex paradox. While certain measures—particularly GACP quality standards—would strengthen Thailand’s cannabis industry and enhance export potential, the medical professional sales requirement threatens to shutter an estimated 12,000 shops. This restriction would disproportionately harm small operators and farmers—precisely the demographic Anutin originally intended to empower through decriminalization. Further, these restrictions were not implemented by regulation, which is needed to develop Thailand cannabis industry.
The medicalized future of Thai cannabis
Under Anutin’s leadership, if he is to act on cannabis, the most probable outcome is neither prohibition nor unfettered access, but rather a medicalized model requiring medical consultations for cannabis access. For Thai patients, this framework offers genuine benefits: enhanced legitimacy, improved quality standards, and expanded research opportunities. It also places increased barriers to access for those that lack the necessary access to medical professionals.
The tourism question is also complex. Will foreign visitors find themselves locked out of the system, or will it evolve into something more transactional—perhaps a standardized fee for obtaining prescriptions? Given tourism’s central role in Thailand’s economy, complete exclusion seems unlikely. Moreover, many argue that unregulated cannabis actually harms tourism, making sensible regulation beneficial for both access advocates and restriction proponents.
Thailand’s global cannabis market ambitions
Beyond domestic considerations, regulation represents the key to unlocking international opportunities. Medical cannabis importers—from Germany to Australia—demand strict compliance with Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and comprehensive and reliable quality standards. Most critically, importing nations require exporting countries to maintain regulatory frameworks covering the entire supply chain from cultivation to export.
Without meeting these requirements, Thai products will largely remain excluded from large-scale international markets, regardless of competitive pricing or favorable growing conditions. For Thailand, which could become Asia’s medical cannabis hub, establishing credible regulatory frameworks isn’t just about domestic patient protection—it’s about accessing a global market worth billions of dollars.
Successfully balanced regulation could enable Thai companies to transition from serving walk-in dispensary customers to exporting premium medical products worldwide.
The stakes ahead
The Thai cannabis industry’s future remains precarious. Should regulation fail to materialize, be implemented poorly, or enforced unevenly, public frustration could strengthen prohibitionist voices in upcoming elections. Thailand’s cannabis sector stands at a critical juncture: it can either establish itself as a legitimate, regulated industry or risk becoming a cautionary tale of rapid liberalization without adequate structural support.
Anutin, in his short four month tenure, is unlikely to serve as either the industry’s executioner or its unconditional savior. Success will depend on achieving delicate balance: regulation that addresses critics’ concerns without stifling opportunity, medical access that serves both patients and tourists, and political decisions that determine whether cannabis remains integral to Thailand’s future or becomes another source of political turbulence. The question is whether Anutin has enough time and political desire to push through such regulations.
The global cannabis and hemp community watches closely to see whether Thailand emerges as a model for regulated medical access in Asia or retreats under political pressure. The may emerge during Anutin’s brief tenure, but will certainly materialize after the election that follows.
Jason Adelstone will address these dynamics and more at the Asia International Hemp Forum in Bangkok this November, participating in a panel titled “Market Access & Import Requirements for Thai Medical Cannabis: Regulatory Updates Across Key Regions.”
The post Thai Cannabis at a Crossroads: Regulation, Opportunity and Political Reality appeared first on Harris Sliwoski LLP.
