Overview

• Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin signed an order banning nonmedical cannabis sales and restricting use to patients with valid prescriptions.
• The measure reclassifies cannabis buds as a controlled herb and must be published in the Royal Gazette before coming into effect.
• Dispensed products must contain less than 0.2% THC by weight under the new regulation.
• The policy reversal follows a 2022 decriminalization that had sparked a tourism boom and proliferation of cannabis businesses.
• Tensions rose when the Bhumjaithai Party severed ties with the ruling Pheu Thai Party over disagreements on the rollback.