 Just two years after Thailand legalized recreational marijuana, they're about to ban it. What made them change their mind so quick? Let's talk about it. You know, at first we thought it's going to turn Thailand into lit land, but then people, they got too lit. It was too lit. Oh, you know, it was known as Thailand, but then it became Highland. That's funny. Yeah, Thailand is going to ban recreational marijuana by the end of 2024. Andrew, they have a new prime minister. He's more conservative. He is reversing the legalization laws of the previous administration. And this is causing quite a buzz. I mean, Andrew, Thailand Thailand caused quite a buzz when they decriminalized it in 2022, when they even allowed it for medical use in 2018 because Andrew nowhere else in Asia allows it. In fact, everywhere else in Asia has very, very, very strict drug laws. Yeah. And I think we're going to get into the reasons on what changed their mind about it and what this, I'm not going to get too political, but I know that there's a new political party and they're considered progressive. But I think they're just trying to reel it back because maybe the previous party that legalized it, maybe didn't do it with what they believe is the best intentions. But anyways, guys, we're going to talk about it. So please hit that like button right now and check out other episodes of the hotpot boys. Oh yeah. Also pre-order Smala man, this is kind of a complicated topic, right? But at its core, isn't it weird, Andrew, that Thailand is considered, I guess, like the most debauchery place in Asia? You know what I mean? I don't need to get into all the details and say the words. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that initially you're like, oh, Thailand, you're very lax on a whole bunch of other stuff. But then when it comes to weed, but you, but then on the other hand, all of Asia is actually pretty tough on weed. Like, and you have to understand Singapore, Korea, China, these are very strict countries and a lot of tourism from these countries go to Thailand. And now that's even bothering other Asian countries. So I guess David, what are the main reasons why they're kind of stepping back on this? Okay. So there's a lot of different reasons from what I heard from the internet. Basically, one of them is that they lost control. Like now you can get weed easier in Thailand than you can get either cigarettes or alcohol, which are both more like regulated in a big infrastructure type of way. Right. So now you could just buy it anywhere. Yeah. I think when they legalize it, they actually weren't ready for the amount of shops and all the people that were all the flood of like investment that was going to go into it. I heard also that the high end East Asian tourists are not comfortable bringing their families anymore. So basically if you can see a Western tourist and let's just say from the UK smoking a J and you're from like Korea where it's not even allowed at all, you just don't want your kids to be exposed to that while walking on the street. Right. So now even though it kind of boosted tourism at first when it legalized weed because everybody's like, Oh, go there to smoke weed. Now it's starting to hurt tourism sort of right. And between Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, East Asian countries, Andrew, they make up two thirds of actually foreign tourism to Thailand. You know, everybody's like, no, no, no, it's all about all all these will us all these aren't going to come anymore for spring break because we like to get a little lit off the grass. But it's like actually if you look at it statistically, Asian family tourism was making up a much larger percentage. Wow. So it's actually bothering the Asian families that want to come by and that's off she most of the time. There are some young people and from Japan and Korea and China that move to Thailand to smoke weed to want to be clear. Right. But also like I heard in South Korea or something like they're warning their their employees like, Hey, if you vacate in Thailand, even if you do whatever there, if we find it on you here, don't bring none of it. We're going to be very strict on you fail a drug test at your job, even though the weed was smoked in Thailand where it's legal. We don't care. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think these are pretty sensible reasons. Yeah. Listen, you lost control. You weren't ready for everything. Now it's starting to hurt tourism because now everybody else in Asia is actually more strict on it. And you're the only one that's letting it free. I guess what people were saying was it used to be only isolated to zones like Pattaya, which were known as very debauchery places. But it was like seeping into like, you know, nice family resorts in Chiang Mai. Right. And by the way, guys, recreational, this is recreational marijuana that's going to get banned. Medical marijuana is still going to be legal. But I will say this like, and I'm not I don't know about the politics, but they were saying how the political party that had legalized it had made promises to the northeastern farmers of Thailand that this was going to be like a big thing. And maybe that's why they got a lot of a lot of corruption low key. Some people were speculating that the previous administration that had passed the law actually low key had mad equity in the weed business itself. So there was it was essentially like boosting your own industry that you own. Right, right. Well, they got they got some new leaders. Yeah, I'll tell you this, Andrew. Drugs are really, really interesting. I looked up some stats, Andrew. The lifetime usage rates of illegal drugs in Japan, which is also an incredibly high GDP country, Andrew, is 1.2 percent. That means people will only 1.2 percent of the entire population will have ever used an illegal drug in their entire life in Japan. And Andrew, in the America, which is the richest country by GDP in the world, Andrew, large country, it's 30 percent, 30 percent of people will have tried an illegal substance throughout their lifetime. That's 30 X more. Yeah, that's crazy. Anyway, let's just get into the comments section, Andrew. We are not experts on this topic, but you know, it's very, very interesting stuff going on. People just said, Hey, man, my dream was to visit Thailand so I could smoke cannabis with a lady boy and they're going to take that away from me. That wasn't my dream, though. Yeah, that was yours. That was whatever comment dream. Somebody said the genie's not going back in the bottle in the same way that toothpaste can't go back in the tube. Ah, you mean they're saying like, Oh, well, all the weed is out there. You can't stop it. Right. Like basically this snowball is rolling down the hill. You can't stop it. It's going to be hard, but they're also going to make a lot of money off these fines because basically if you're caught using it, you could get fined up to 1700 USD. That's a lot of money to get fined for just smoking a joint. Do you think that a lot of Aussies or UK people are reconsidering their destination spots if they were planning on going in 2025? Yeah, I guess so. But I mean, dude, I don't know in Asia, man, trust me, if they want to lock lock down on something, they they more or less kind of yeah, I don't know how well run the Thai infrastructure is though to be honest. I don't know what their ability is to execute anything. Somebody just said America should do the same, but less in jail time, but he should still be illegal. Basically, this is like interesting because in America, Andrew, it all all signs point to it being fully legalized in all the states eventually, right? Right, right. But legalized meaning that as long as you have the systems in place to enforce the regulation, then it's going to be that's that's the ideal situation. Somebody said, I'm a Thai local. It's not going to solve any of the problems here. We just have problems running anything. So basically, like any enforcement of anything is just really difficult. So whether you legalize it, you don't legalize it. Like technically, I guess prostitution in Thailand is legally illegal. But they were just like, I don't know. It's just a lot of things are going on right now that are not legal. Right. Somebody was saying, what about cannabis culture that scares them? And basically, Andrew, some people are indicating in the Thai government, it makes the population drop out of school and not feel motivated to drive the economics forward. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. You guys can look up some studies on like long term use of marijuana. I do think like marijuana being so accessible to young people early on is not good. I think you should be able to do it when you kind of have stuff going on because yeah, it does make you chill and especially Thailand, the entire place is a beach. Right. Yeah, I don't know, man. Dude, it's like, it's not going to make you read more books. Okay, that's if that's the goal, if that's what you're saying, right? Somebody will people said that it's just the style of making laws like one administration will be like, yeah, weed is legal for everybody. We're going to decriminalize. And then the next administration comes right back in and it's like, no, we're going to criminalize, you're going to jail, get fined a lot of money. And then they were just like, man, what a political system? Basically, other people are arguing about the usage of weed. Here's my hot take, Andrew. They should keep drugs out of Asia. Asia, I get it. I'm not saying that weed is the worst thing ever, but no, Asia should not become like the Western world or other parts of the world. Oh, yo, trust me, other Asian countries are gonna lock down. No, but it's like, dude, what a lot of people don't understand is because like Western people are like, always like, oh, yeah, they need to chill out. They need to chill out in Asia and stuff like that. But it's like, I think in Asia, there's a long history of like, you know, narco drug wars, you know, warlords, foreign invasions, the opium wars, like people pushing heroin from like the West and stuff like that. And it's just like, it like set countries back like hundreds of years. Yeah. I mean, dude, the whole reason why everybody looks up to Japan and is like, oh, Tokyo is such a futuristic clean city. Everything runs so well. No crime. You can leave your cell phone on a park bench and then go to the police station and somebody will have turned it in. Yeah. And that's because they are not lax on things. Let's be honest. That's why over time, everybody buys in to the strictness and they're still able to find fun and happiness within the limitations. But there are hard limitations in those places. But how do you know that they're really having fun if they're not really having the phone on the drugs where the drugs itself fun wrong? Everybody's had fun in Japan. Everybody's had fun in Japan. I had a ton of fun in Japan. Everybody's had fun in Japan, even a strict and as safe and as limited as it is. Everybody's had fun. I had fun in Singapore too. In Singapore, you they'd chop your hand off. Bro, do not, do not bring anything back from Thailand to Singapore. All right, they're gonna lock that down. Anyways, guys, listen, we're not experts on the issue. And I'm not like anti marijuana all the way. But I do think for Thailand, if they don't have the systems and infrastructure in place to regulate, maybe it's best to pull back a little bit. And I think it's gonna be hard though. It's gonna be hard for sure. Yeah. Listen, man, Asia, if they don't like some, they're bringing the army through. That's all I'm saying. Like, I don't think running your country like this debauchers play land for the rest of the world, specifically like the Western world is necessarily the best longterm plan for also still I don't think that that is what I would want to do. If I was the emperor of Thailand or whatever, you know, it still needs to be a family friendly beach town with lots of good food and great service and hospitality and a getaway for your family from Asia, you know, trust me, listen, if you're a family from a stricter Asian country and you go to Thailand and you see all this stuff going on, you're gonna be like, oh my god, yeah, this is not why I expected, man, this is crazy. You know, so anyways, guys, let me know what you guys think about this in the comments down below. Obviously, it is kind of crazy to legalize it and then two, three years later, pull back on it. So it kind of shows the jumpiness and how they run things. But anyways, I'm hoping for the best. I like Thailand. Shout out to them, but hope they figure it out. So you guys let us know in the comments down below what you think. Until next time, we out. Peace.