This part covers what happens after an inspector finds a breach at a licensed cannabis business in Thailand. It explains the order process, appeals, repeat breaches, stock and patients, and the cost of a suspension. It also covers prevention, the criminal track and life after revocation.
Part 1 sets out the penalty levels from the guideline issued on 22 June 2026 by the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine (DTAM), the department that licenses controlled herbs. Each breach leads to a 30-day suspension, a 90-day suspension or immediate revocation. A short priority list is at the end of this part.
This is Part 2. Part 1: Licence Suspension and Revocation in Thailand: The Full Penalty Map for Cannabis Licence Holders (Part 1 of 2)
From inspection finding to final order
The Protection and Promotion of Thai Traditional Medicine Knowledge Act B.E. 2542 (1999) does not set a fixed timetable between a finding and an order. Neither does Ministerial Regulation No. 2 B.E. 2569. Regulation No. 2 (Royal Gazette, 30 April 2026) only changes the licensing criteria and the renewal rules.
The general rule comes from Section 30 of the Administrative Procedure Act B.E. 2539. Before an order that may affect your rights is issued, you must get a fair chance to learn the facts. You must also get a chance to respond with evidence. There are limited exceptions, such as urgency.
The usual sequence looks like this:
- An inspector records a finding. You may be asked to explain.
- You reply. Answer quickly and in writing. Attach copies of the PT 27 (stock record), PT 28 (periodic report) and PT 33 (prescription) records that relate to the finding.
- The penalty is set. The length follows the type of breach in the June 2026 guideline: 30 or 90 days. One order is capped at 90 days under Section 52 of the 1999 Act. The published texts contain no provision that lets you give a written undertaking instead of serving a suspension.
- The order is delivered in writing. If you cannot be found or refuse to accept it, the order is posted at the licensed premises. It counts as received on that day (Section 55).
- You may appeal (อุทธรณ์) to the Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Thai Traditional Medicine Knowledge (คณะกรรมการคุ้มครองและส่งเสริมภูมิปัญญาการแพทย์แผนไทย), set up under the 1999 Act, within 30 days of being notified (Section 70). An appeal does not pause the suspension or revocation. The Committee’s decision is final at the administrative stage (Section 71).
- The last step is the Administrative Court. A case is normally filed within 90 days (Section 49 of the Act on Establishment of Administrative Courts and Administrative Court Procedure B.E. 2542).
Translator’s note: An order posted at the premises counts as received that day, even if the shop is closed. Have someone check the premises every day while a case is open. Orders are written in Thai, so if your managers do not read Thai, have a lawyer or a trusted Thai-speaking staff member read each document on the day it arrives.
What to do: write down the date each official document arrives. Work out the 30-day appeal deadline and the 90-day court deadline the same day.
Appeals: what usually works and what does not
An appeal against suspension or revocation can rest on procedural grounds as well as on the argument that the penalty was too heavy. Procedural grounds include an inspector with no authority, a defective notice or a procedure that was not followed.
Examples of procedural grounds:
- The inspection was carried out without proper identification or a formal appointment, where one was required.
- The finding relied on a document that was later shown to be forged by someone else.
- You were not given the legally required chance to respond before the order was issued.
These arguments rarely succeed: “I didn’t know about the rule”, “the breach was minor” and “we have already fixed it”. They can reduce the penalty in a criminal case. They do not overturn an administrative order that was properly issued.
An appeal does not pause the order, so it does not buy you time. Use the 30 days to close the compliance gaps and document each fix. Your appeal file can then show that the problem is solved.
What to do: at every inspection, note the inspector’s name, the details of their identification and every document you were asked to show. These notes are what a procedural appeal is built on.
Repeat breaches
According to reports of the guideline, if you have already been suspended and commit the same breach again, revocation will be considered immediately. A different breach after a suspension brings a heavier penalty.
There is also a renewal rule. Under Ministerial Regulation No. 2 B.E. 2569, as explained in DTAM’s guide, the licensing authority may refuse to renew a licence that was suspended for breaching the Ministry of Public Health notification on controlled herbs (cannabis).
So a repeat of a breach you were already suspended for puts the licence at risk of revocation. Any suspension for breaching the cannabis notification puts it at risk at renewal time, because the authority may refuse renewal when its term ends.
Keep every inspection record, warning letter and written explanation you have sent. The published texts do not say how informal warnings are weighed. If you later challenge an order, a written record of what was found and how you fixed it is your best evidence.
What to do: keep one folder per inspection, on paper and as a scan. Put the inspector’s notes, your reply and proof of each fix in it.
Stock and patients during a suspension
Under Section 52, paragraph 2, a suspended licensee must stop all activity under that licence for the whole suspension. You also cannot get any other licence under the Act during that time. Selling or processing controlled herbs while suspended is an offence under Section 78, punishable by up to 1 year in prison and/or a fine of up to 20,000 baht.
The published texts reviewed here do not say what must happen to stock on the premises during a suspension. Do not sell, move or destroy it until DTAM has answered you in writing. Keep the PT 27 stock record up to date the whole time.
Translator’s note: Thai storage rooms often reach 30–35 °C, and humidity is high in the rainy season. If you turn off the air conditioning to save money during a 90-day suspension, flower can go mouldy. You may then hold spoiled stock that you are not allowed to destroy. Keep the storage room climate running and log temperature and humidity every day. Storage basics are in humidity, light, oxygen and shelf life.
Patients who get PT 33 supply from your dispensary will need another licensed facility while the suspension lasts. Tell existing patients directly and privately.
Translator’s note: Contact patients by phone or private message, not with a public post. A public post about flower supply may count as advertising, and advertising is a separate 30-day breach.
What to do: prepare a short list of your current patients and the message you will send them. Keep it ready before any inspection.
Planning for the cost of a suspension
A suspension costs more than the lost sales for 30 or 90 days.
Rent continues. If you cannot leave the lease at 30 days’ notice, rent is a fixed cost while you have no income. If you are signing a long lease for new premises, ask for a suspension clause at signing. This is unusual, but some businesses in regulated industries have done it.
Staff costs are harder to plan. Your trained staff should stay on the payroll. Without them, you will not meet the trained-staff requirement, which applies whenever the business is open. For other staff, the numbers work differently. If you hired more people than one dispensary’s income can support, a 90-day suspension may break up the team for good.
Banks may review your account. A suspension order may lead your bank to start its own review of your account. No published source shows how often this happens, so ask your bank how it treats licence actions.
What to do: add up your monthly fixed costs (rent, the trained staff you must keep, loan payments). Multiply by three. That is the cash you need to get through a 90-day suspension.
Reducing risk before an inspector finds a problem
You can do the most good before an inspector arrives. Inspections are unannounced and do not follow a fixed cycle. A visit can be triggered by a public complaint, by something in your renewal documents or by a routine sweep of the area. Compliance therefore has to run every day, not only when an inspection is expected.
Three self-checks are worth doing:
Trained staff. Under the April 2026 rules, DTAM’s guide says a flower licensee must have at least one staff member who has completed the approved medical cannabis course, on site whenever the business is open. Each month, check that this person’s training certificate is valid. Also check that the staff rota covers every opening hour. This takes about 20 minutes. A gap here means you do not meet the licensing criteria, and the same criteria are checked again at renewal.
Secure premises. DTAM’s guide asks licensees to have a security plan and loss-prevention controls at the licensed premises. Security usually breaks down a little at a time. Examples are a door propped open for deliveries, a back window left unlocked for air, or a customer who insists on seeing the stock room. Walk through the premises every week and take photos with a date and time stamp. Store the photos. If an inspector later says the premises were not controlled on a certain date, the photo log shows your routine compliance.
Translator’s note: At 30–35 °C, staff will open doors and windows for air, especially when the air conditioning stops during a power cut. Plan ventilation so the room can stay closed. For example, fit fixed grilles or screens on windows so they let air in but cannot be used as an entrance. Record power cuts in the same weekly log.
Complete documents. The licence, practitioner credentials, stock records and PT 33 prescription log must all be at the premises, up to date and ready to show at once. If you cannot show a document, the inspector may provisionally record that it does not exist, because they cannot check what they have not seen. “It’s at head office” is not an acceptable answer when an inspector asks for the stock record.
What to do: keep one binder at the premises with every document on this list, plus a scanned copy. Check it against the list once a week.
Administrative and criminal cases run separately
Some operators believe that a suspension order settles the matter and ends any criminal risk. That is wrong.
Administrative cases under the ministerial regulations and criminal cases under the Narcotics Code or the 1999 Act run in parallel. An administrative finding does not protect you from prosecution. It also does not mean you are presumed guilty in a criminal case. The two are independent.
If the same conduct may also be a crime, it can be reported to the police. An example is selling extracts above the THC limit without a licence. No published protocol from DTAM or the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB, Thailand’s narcotics control agency) says how often this happens.
Your criminal risk does not end when the administrative case closes. Under Section 95 of the Criminal Code, the limitation period depends on the maximum prison term. For an offence punishable by up to 1 year in prison, such as one under Section 78, it is 5 years from the date of the offence.
What to do: while the suspension is still running, ask a Thai lawyer whether any act behind the breach also carries criminal risk. Do this before the administrative case is closed.
After revocation: what you lose and what you keep
Ministerial Regulation No. 2 B.E. 2569 does not deal with revocation or reapplying. It only lets the licensing authority refuse renewal for a licensee who was suspended for breaching the controlled-herb notification.
The waiting period comes from Section 54 of the 1999 Act. After a revocation, no new licence under the Act can be issued for two years, and after that a new licence is at the licensor’s discretion. For a company, Clause 8(1)(e) of the 2016 Ministerial Regulation on controlled-herb licensing applies the same two-year ban to the company and to its directors, managers and other responsible persons. So a new company run by the same people, or a change of management, may not avoid the ban. Confirm your own case with DTAM or a Thai lawyer.
Staff do not lose their own qualifications. A revocation is an order against the business licence, not against a practitioner’s own professional licence. Before a staff member starts at another dispensary, confirm with DTAM that their training certificate is accepted there. The licence is lost, but the team’s skills are not.
What to do: keep a copy of each staff member’s certificate on file, and make sure each person holds their own original.
Summary: which risks to fix first
If your compliance budget is limited, work in this order, from the highest immediate risk to the lowest.
Immediate revocation:
- False PT 27 or PT 28 reports
- Selling without a PT 33 to anyone under 20, students, or pregnant or breastfeeding women
- Allowing smoking on the premises
- Vending machines
- Online sales
- Sales at a temple, dormitory or public park
- Repeating a breach you were already suspended for
90-day suspension:
- Not notifying export details to the licensor
- Selling cannabis without a PT 33
For a business with one location, a 90-day suspension in the peak tourist season can be enough to close it for good.
30-day suspension:
- PT 27 or PT 28 not prepared, incomplete or not submitted
- Selling or exporting herbs without GACP or equivalent certification
- Licence not displayed
- Any commercial advertising
Most of these are prevented by routine paperwork and by never posting prices or promotions.
Smaller problems. These include minor documentation gaps, a one-off staff mistake in what is said to a customer, or a single post that crosses the advertising line by accident. The guideline as reported has no separate warning level. A single advertising post legally falls in the 30-day level (see Part 1). The published reports do not say whether inspectors may give only a warning for small problems. Treat every small problem as something that will go on your record, and fix it the same day.
What to do: schedule a full self-inspection before the peak season starts. Use the routine in Part 1 and the three self-checks above.
This is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your own position with a licensed Thai lawyer before you act. If you have dealt with an inspection, appeal or suspension, share what happened below this topic so other licence holders can learn from it.
References
- Protection and Promotion of Thai Traditional Medicine Knowledge Act B.E. 2542 (1999), Sections 5, 52, 54, 55, 70, 71 and 78
- Criminal Code, Section 95
- Administrative Procedure Act B.E. 2539 (1996), Section 30
- Act on Establishment of Administrative Courts and Administrative Court Procedure B.E. 2542 (1999), as amended, Section 49
- Notification of the Ministry of Public Health Re: Controlled Herbs (Cannabis), B.E. 2568 — Royal Gazette, 25 June 2025
- Ministerial Regulation on Category 5 Narcotics, cannabis and hemp extracts, B.E. 2569 — in force 26 April 2026
- Ministerial Regulation No. 2 B.E. 2569 on licensing for controlled herbs — 30 April 2026
- Ministerial Regulation on licensing for research, export, sale and processing of controlled herbs, B.E. 2559 (2016) — Royal Gazette vol. 133, part 103 Kor, 9 December 2016, Clause 8(1)(e) (DTAM copy)
- Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine. (2026, 22 June). แนวทางการออกคำสั่งทางปกครองในการเพิ่มโทษพักใช้และเพิกถอนใบอนุญาต [Guideline on administrative orders increasing licence suspension and revocation penalties].
- Narcotics Code, promulgated by the Act Promulgating the Narcotics Code B.E. 2564 (2021); in force 9 December 2021