What Licenses Do You Need to Grow, Sell, or Export Cannabis in Thailand?

Growing, selling, and exporting cannabis in Thailand each require their own license and standards; there is no single permit that covers the whole chain. Cultivation needs a cultivation license and certification. Retail needs a dispensary license with medical supervision. Export needs specific authorization on top of destination-market certification. Assuming one license covers multiple activities is a common and costly misunderstanding.

Cultivation

To grow legally and supply the medical channel, you need the appropriate cultivation license and, critically, certification to the GACP standard. Without certification, a grower is effectively locked out of legally supplying dispensaries, regardless of license. Certification is now as important as the license itself on the cultivation side.

Retail sale

To sell, you need a dispensary license, on-site medical supervision, prescription-verification systems, and certified supply. This is the medical-retail model that replaced the recreational one. The license alone is not enough; the surrounding compliance is part of the requirement.

Export

Export requires specific authorization from the Thai side and, decisively, certification accepted by the destination market. For major medical markets like the EU, that means EU-GMP, which Thailand largely lacks. So the export license is necessary but far from sufficient, and the binding constraint is usually the certification gap, not the Thai paperwork.