Four years ago, Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalise cannabis. By 2023, Bangkok’s streets were lined with dispensaries, green crosses glowing above shopfronts from Sukhumvit to Silom, and tourists were treating the country’s weed scene as part of the travel experience.
That version of the Thai cannabis market no longer exists, and the question of whether cannabis is legal in Thailand now has a more complicated answer than it did two years ago.
What replaced it is a tightly regulated medical framework, built through a series of ministerial orders and regulatory decisions that accelerated sharply in 2025 and 2026. The change was not a reversal of cannabis policy so much as a course correction, from an unregulated consumer market to a controlled medical one.
For anyone trying to understand what is actually legal in Bangkok today, the short answer is: cannabis is legal, but only within a medical framework, and the rules around accessing it have become considerably more specific.
Timeline: how we got here
In June 2022, cannabis was delisted from Thailand’s narcotics code, effectively decriminalising it and triggering a rapid expansion of dispensaries nationwide. By late 2023, the Ministry of Public Health was already signalling that recreational use would be restricted, and a dedicated Cannabis-Hemp Act began moving through the legislative process.
On June 26, 2025, the Ministry of Public Health reclassified cannabis flower as a “controlled herb”, ending the de facto open market that had operated since 2022.
In September 2025, the department publicly confirmed that medical cannabis would be restricted to five approved conditions, with prescriptions required for all flower purchases.
In January 2026, new supervision rules took effect requiring on-site licensed practitioners at all operating dispensaries.
By April 2026, the framework tightened further, with premises restricted to medical facilities, pharmacies, herbal product retailers, and the workplaces of traditional healers.
The impact on the industry was immediate. As of December 28, 2025, Thailand had 18,433 cannabis-related establishments. During 2025, licences for 8,636 shops expired, but only 1,339 shops applied for renewal, representing about 15.5%. More than 7,000 shops closed without renewing.
The consolidation is ongoing, and for anyone asking whether cannabis is legal in Thailand today, the answer depends entirely on which framework you are operating within.
Is weed still legal in Bangkok?
Read the full article: https://thethaiger.com/guides/cannabis/cannabis-thailand-2026-medical-rules
