Al Jazeera..
Nearly a year after Thailand decriminalised cannabis amid promises of an economic bonanza, Thai growers and sellers say they are being undercut by illegal imports from the United States that sell for a fraction of the price of homegrown buds.
Thailand struck cannabis from its list of banned narcotics in June 2022 after a high-profile campaign by Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to establish the kingdom as a global hub for cannabis for medical purposes.
But Thailand’s parliament has yet to pass a long-awaited cannabis bill, leaving the regulatory framework for the industry in limbo.
Local businesses say foreign money is filling the gap, with many dispensaries across the country pushing low-cost cannabis imported illegally from the US.
Foreign brokers are approaching local dispensaries to hawk cheap, smuggled weed that is untaxed and then sold at two to five times its original price, according to local cannabis entrepreneurs.
“A decent locally grown strain goes for 300 baht [$9] per gram but imports are only 150-180 baht [$4.50-5.30] per gram,” Prajya Aura-ek, a cannabis entrepreneur with several licensed dispensaries in Bangkok, told Al Jazeera.
“Each day we have brokers, both Thais and other nationalities — this is definitely a multinational business — coming into our shops trying to sell us imported weed. But we turn them all down.”
Prajya said brokers have told him the product is smuggled in furniture and fruit or vegetable containers “so when customs scan, they can’t tell that it’s weed”.
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