Is Cannabis Legal in Thailand Right Now?

Cannabis in Thailand is legal for medical use only. Since 25 June 2025, recreational cannabis has been illegal: cannabis flower is now classified as a "controlled herb," and you need a valid prescription from a licensed Thai practitioner to buy it legally. If you arrived expecting the open, walk-in dispensaries of 2023, that version of Thailand is gone.

What actually changed in 2025

For a brief window after 2022, Thailand removed cannabis from its narcotics list and thousands of dispensaries opened, operating in a legal grey zone that was technically medical but rarely enforced. That ended on 25 June 2025, when the Public Health Minister signed a notification reclassifying cannabis flower as a controlled herb under the Protection and Promotion of Thai Traditional Medicine Knowledge Act. Recreational sale and possession without a prescription became illegal again.

What is legal now

Legal, under the current framework: buying and using cannabis with a valid Thai medical prescription (a PT33, issued by a licensed practitioner and valid for up to 30 days); buying from a licensed dispensary that has on-site medical supervision; and CBD products containing less than 0.2 percent THC, which are treated more leniently as health products but are still regulated.

What is illegal now

Illegal: buying cannabis flower without a prescription; recreational use; smoking in public, which is treated as a public nuisance; and bringing cannabis into or out of the country, even with a foreign prescription. Extracts above 0.2 percent THC remain classified as Category 5 narcotics under stricter drug laws.

Why the distinction matters

Cannabis in Thailand is not fully banned and not freely legal. It sits in a controlled medical framework, and legality depends on the product, its THC content, and how it is used. For a visitor, the safe reading is simple: treat it as medical-only. For anyone looking at the market itself, that same reclassification is what triggered a wave of shop closures and reshaped the entire industry, which is a longer story.