Thailand did not legalise cannabis in 2022 and did not re-criminalise it in 2025 — it moved the plant between regulatory regimes, and almost every argument in this community comes from missing that distinction.
1. Why This Article Exists
Four research passes could not confirm the name of this instrument from law-firm summaries alone. The Royal Gazette text has since been read directly — Vol. 142, Special Part 229 Ngor, 25 June 2025 — so the dates and the parent statute below come from the primary document. What the Gazette does not supply is an English name: the two-page text contains no English at all, so every English rendering in circulation is a third-party translation. This article therefore attaches named sources to individual facts and keeps the remaining disagreements visible.
The Naming Problem, Stated Up Front
Many English-language posts refer to a “Controlled Herbs Act B.E. 2568 (2025)”. No source reachable for this article describes an Act of that name. What they describe is a ministerial notification on controlled herbs (cannabis) issued under a statute that already existed: Silk Legal names it the Protection and Promotion of Thai Traditional Medical Knowledge Act, B.E. 2542 (1999), citing Section 46 for licensing. Nishimura & Asahi’s 2022 note confirms the same Act — rendered there as the Act to Protect and Promote Traditional Thai Medicine Wisdom B.E. 2542 — was already the vehicle for cannabis controls three years earlier. Two ministerial regulations issued in early 2026 — on cannabis or hemp extracts and on controlled herb licensing — are part of the current framework; they are addressed in section 10 below.
2. Before 2022: The Starting Point
The Statutes That Criminalised the Plant
Wikipedia’s entry on cannabis in Thailand describes two successive criminalising statutes: a Cannabis Act it dates to B.E. 2477 and renders as 1935, and the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522 (1979), which re-criminalised possession, cultivation, sale and use. The standard conversion of 2477 gives 1934, not 1935, and no second source settled it. Nishimura & Asahi then record that the Act Prescribing the Use of the Narcotics Code B.E. 2564 (2021) was enacted on 9 December 2021 and replaced the 1979 Act, so the framework cannabis left in 2022 was the recodified Narcotics Code, in force only months.
The Penalties, and an Honest Gap
No source reachable here sets out imprisonment terms or fines for Category 5 offences before 2022. Consequences were clearly custodial: Wikipedia records roughly 4,200 prisoners released when cannabis came off the list. Thailand had also already opened a medical channel, becoming in 2018, per Wikipedia, “the first Asian nation to legalize medical cannabis,” with prescriptions required — so the 2025 changes are a return to that channel, not an invention.
3. June 2022: What Left Narcotics Control and What Did Not
The Instrument and Its Timing
Nishimura & Asahi name it the “Notification Re: Prescribing the List of Narcotics Under Category 5”, issued 8 February 2022, gazetted 9 February 2022, effective only “120 days after the date of its publication” — approximately 9 June 2022. That gap is why some accounts date the change to February and others to June.
What Was Removed, and the 0.2 Percent Extract Line
Wikipedia states “the cannabis flower was officially removed from the country’s narcotics list”, effectively decriminalising use and possession. Plant material left Category 5. Extracts did not, unconditionally. The line was a tetrahydrocannabinol threshold of 0.2 percent by weight: per Wikipedia, extracts and derived products including edibles, supplements and cosmetics under that figure were legalised, “while those with higher THC content continued to require a medical prescription”, hashish and other higher-content extracts staying in Category 5.
Nishimura & Asahi quote the carve-out from the other side: an “extract substance containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) not exceeding 0.2 percent per weight but only for a substance authorised to be extracted from cannabis or hemp grown in Thailand” — note that second condition, frequently dropped in summaries.
The Distinction People Get Wrong
Plainly: the plant came off the narcotics list; concentrated extracts above the 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol threshold stayed on it. Arguments beginning “but cannabis is legal in Thailand” collapse here.
4. Registration and the Household Grower
Wikipedia describes post-delisting cultivation as a registration duty, not a licence: individuals “must register with the country’s Food and Drug Administration” to cultivate, via an application named Plookganja, meaning “to plant cannabis”, with no restrictions stated on plant counts per individual. Notify, do not apply — light-touch, because no statute underneath defined a licence.
5. The Rules That Landed Within Days
Cannabis Designated a Controlled Herb in 2022
Nishimura & Asahi record a controlled herb notification dated 16 June 2022 under the Act to Protect and Promote Traditional Thai Medicine Wisdom B.E. 2542, permitting those over 20 to possess and use cannabis while prohibiting public smoking and sale to under-20s and to pregnant or lactating women. Cannabis became a controlled herb in 2022, not 2025; the 2025 instrument tightened that designation, it did not create it.
Smoke and Odour as a Public Nuisance
Nishimura & Asahi date a Ministry of Public Health nuisance notification to 14 June 2022, gazetted 15 June 2022, treating as a nuisance “smoke or odor from cannabis, hemp, or other types of plants which may deteriorate or harm the health of bystanders.” Penalties attach through the Public Health Act B.E. 2535 (1992): up to three months’ imprisonment, a fine up to THB 25,000, or both. Wikipedia gives the same figures.
6. The Grey Period, 2022 to 2025
On 8 June 2022 the House voted on the draft Cannabis and Hemp Act, 373 of 400 agreeing in principle, per Nishimura & Asahi. That is not enactment: FOSR Law states the draft “stalled in parliament”, and a Thailand-focused explainer current to July 2026 says it “stalled before the readings needed to become law.”
The operative rules therefore sat not in a cannabis statute but in ministerial notifications under other statutes — principally the traditional medicine Act of B.E. 2542 and the Public Health Act B.E. 2535 — plus provincial measures. FOSR Law describes a “hybrid regulatory framework” in which health, traditional medicine, interior, provincial and local authorities all issue rules, with no single cannabis law and no unified licensing body.
Why That Made the Framework Reversible
A notification can be replaced by another notification: no parliamentary majority, no three readings, no coalition needed. Anyone who built a business assuming durability was relying on a ministerial signature. June 2025 proved it.
7. Advertising and Selling: The Short Version
Silk Legal states that advertising cannabis flowers “is banned across all platforms.” That is the rule, and it is not this article’s subject. This forum already carries the existing thread on advertising and selling rules, plus threads on licence suspension and revocation and on shop promotions.
8. June 2025: Prescription-Only Flower
The Instrument and Its Competing Names
Three sources, three renderings: “Notification on Controlled Herbs (Cannabis) 2025” (Tilleke & Gibbins), “Ministerial Announcement on Controlled Herbal Medicine (Cannabis), B.E. 2568” (Herrera & Partners), and no formal name at all (Silk Legal, which attributes it to the Act of B.E. 2542). All three describe a notification, not an Act.
The Dates, Settled by the Royal Gazette
The Royal Gazette entry reads Vol. 142, Special Part 229 Ngor, 25 June 2025. The notification is signed 23 June 2025 by the Minister of Public Health, and Clause 1 brings it into force the day after gazette publication — 26 June 2025. Signed 23 June, published 25 June, in force 26 June: three different moments, which is why third-party summaries that give a single date disagree with one another. Silk Legal’s 24 June, and 26 June as an issue date in Tilleke & Gibbins, each read one of those moments as another. The prescription requirement commencing 1 July 2025 is a separate, later step.
The Prescription, the Form and Who May Write It
Tilleke & Gibbins states sales are lawful only when the buyer “duly presents a cannabis prescription issued by one of seven recognized professional practitioners.” Prescriptions must be paper-based, teleconsultation and online prescribing are not permitted, and the prescriber must work in a clinic or hospital. The form is PT 33 per Tilleke & Gibbins, “Phor.Thor.33” per Silk Legal, and “the official template issued by DTAM” per Herrera & Partners — the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine.
The seven categories: medical doctors, Thai traditional medicine doctors, applied Thai traditional medicine doctors, folk healers, Chinese medicine practitioners, pharmacists and dentists. Wikipedia’s shorter summary omits folk healers and applied practitioners.
Quantity and Duration
Both Tilleke & Gibbins and Herrera & Partners cap a prescription at 30 days; Tilleke & Gibbins adds that each is valid one time only, no refills, with strain, dosage and duration specified. A Thailand-focused explainer also describes a 30-gram monthly cap; no law firm source reached here mentions a weight cap, so that figure is unconfirmed.
Sourcing From Certified Cultivation
Tilleke & Gibbins states flowers sold or exported must come from sites certified under Good Agricultural and Collection Practices: certification valid one to three years, annual surveillance audits, inspectors checking soil, water, pesticides, hygiene and postharvest handling, and seed-to-sale records. Silk Legal renders the same requirement as “Good Agricultural and Harvesting Practices (GAP)”; Herrera & Partners names no scheme. That phrasing matches the European Medicines Agency’s guideline term for herbal starting materials; whether Thailand’s scheme is that standard or a national analogue is unresolved.
Records, Inspection and Penalties
Per Tilleke & Gibbins, dispensaries must keep every prescription at least one year and produce it on demand to the traditional medicine department or the police; identity-verification lapses can trigger licence suspension, and prescribers must keep diagnostic evidence for cross-checking.
On penalties, Tilleke & Gibbins gives up to one year’s imprisonment or a THB 20,000 fine for dispensary non-compliance; Herrera & Partners gives up to one year, up to THB 20,000, or both, plus up to three years or THB 60,000 for false reporting. A Thailand-focused explainer ties the same figures to unlicensed selling under the traditional medicine Act. Silk Legal gives none.
9. What the June 2025 Notification Did Not Do
- It did not return cannabis to the narcotics list. Silk Legal states cannabis has “not yet been returned to the narcotics list”; Tilleke & Gibbins describes control through prescription, not prohibition; Wikipedia says recreational use “technically remained decriminalized.”
- It did not cover the whole plant. Herrera & Partners states it controls flowers, other parts such as leaves and stems remaining general herbal medicine.
- It did not move the 0.2 percent line. Wikipedia’s entry on the legality of cannabis says products over 0.2 percent “were legal before 2025” and “now require a prescription”.
- It did not create a statute. It is a notification, and the absence of an Act is the same absence as in 2022.
- It did not void existing licences. FOSR Law describes them as temporarily valid, renewal becoming “the compliance bottleneck” because retail-style shops “may not qualify as clinics.”
Wikipedia does record Minister Somsak Thepsuthin “pledged to push for further restrictions and a possible reclassification” as a narcotic. A pledge is not an instrument.
10. Early 2026: Two Ministerial Regulations
Two instruments came into force in early 2026, distinct from the June 2025 notification and issued as ministerial regulations (กฎกระทรวง) rather than notifications (ประกาศ) — a different legal instrument carrying different authority.
Ministerial Regulation on Cannabis or Hemp Extracts B.E. 2569, published in the Royal Gazette 26 March 2026, effective 26 April 2026: restricts licences for producing cannabis or hemp extracts exceeding 0.2 percent tetrahydrocannabinol by weight to Thai legal entities not classified as foreign under the Foreign Business Act B.E. 2542, to government bodies and agencies, and to the Thai Red Cross Society. Foreign-majority-owned companies do not qualify.
Ministerial Regulation on Controlled Herbs (No. 2) B.E. 2569, effective 30 April 2026: tightened licensing conditions for cannabis flowers under the controlled herb framework, adding requirements on top of those established by the June 2025 notification.
Both are confirmed instruments in force. They are not the draft Cannabis Control Act (formerly the Cannabis and Hemp Act), which remains unpassed.
11. Timeline of Instruments
| Date | Instrument or event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| B.E. 2477, rendered 1935 | Cannabis Act criminalises the plant | Wikipedia |
| B.E. 2522 (1979) | Narcotics Act re-criminalises | Wikipedia |
| 2018 | Medical cannabis permitted with prescription | Wikipedia |
| 9 Dec 2021 | Narcotics Code B.E. 2564 replaces the 1979 Act | Nishimura |
| 8 to 9 Feb 2022 | Category 5 list notification issued, gazetted | Nishimura |
| 8 Jun 2022 | Draft Act agreed in principle, 373 of 400 | Nishimura |
| approx. 9 Jun 2022 | Delisting effective, 120 days after gazette | Nishimura |
| 14 to 15 Jun 2022 | Nuisance notification on smoke and odour | Nishimura |
| 16 Jun 2022 | Controlled herb notification under the B.E. 2542 Act | Nishimura |
| 2022 to 2024 | Rules by ministerial directive, no Act | FOSR Law |
| 23 Jun 2025 | 2025 notification signed | Herrera; Silk |
| 25 Jun 2025 | Royal Gazette publication, Vol. 142 Special Part 229 Ngor | Royal Gazette |
| 26 Jun 2025 | In force, day after gazette (Clause 1) | Royal Gazette |
| 1 Jul 2025 | Prescription requirement commences | Herrera |
| Sep 2025 | Anutin Charnvirakul becomes prime minister | Wikipedia |
| Dec 2025 | Further tightening described as approved | FOSR Law |
| 26 Mar 2026 | Ministerial Regulation on Cannabis or Hemp Extracts B.E. 2569 gazetted | Verified |
| 26 Apr 2026 | Ministerial Regulation on Cannabis or Hemp Extracts B.E. 2569 effective | Verified |
| 30 Apr 2026 | Ministerial Regulation on Controlled Herbs (No. 2) B.E. 2569 effective | Verified |
| 22 Apr to 17 Jul 2026 | Draft Cannabis Control Act (formerly the Cannabis and Hemp Act): public consultation, three rounds | Hfocus |
| 22 Sep 2026 | Cabinet approves the draft and sends it to the House; not enacted | Thai PBS |
12. Where Things Stand in 2026
| Question | Position | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cannabis a narcotic again? | No | Settled |
| Flower prescription-only? | Yes | Settled |
| A cannabis statute in force? | No | Settled |
| What governs it? | Ministerial notification | Settled |
| Effective date of the 2025 instrument | 26 June 2025 | Settled, Royal Gazette |
| Its formal name | ประกาศกระทรวงสาธารณสุข เรื่อง สมุนไพรควบคุม (กัญชา) พ.ศ. 2568 | Settled in Thai; no official English |
| Weight-based possession cap | Single-sourced | Unconfirmed |
| Two B.E. 2569 ministerial regulations | Extracts and flowers licensing, in force | Confirmed |
| Draft Cannabis Control Act (formerly the Cannabis and Hemp Act) | Cabinet-approved 22 Sep 2026, awaiting the House | Drafted, not enacted |
| Reclassification as a narcotic | Pledge only | Announced, not enacted |
FOSR Law adds, for December 2025, a shift toward a medical-clinic model: traceability reporting through point-of-sale systems, on-site consumption limited to supervised patients, and controlled formulations. It names no instrument, so this is described rather than citable.
13. What This Means for the Groups Who Read This Forum
| Group | What changed | The question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Patients | Paper prescription from one of seven practitioner categories, 30 days, no refills | Is your prescriber in a clinic or hospital, and is your form current? |
| Home growers | Notification-based cultivation from 2022; no source reached describes household growing being banned in 2025 | Is your notification on record, and has your province added conditions? |
| Farms | Certification and seed-to-sale records now gate selling or exporting flower | Is certification current and are audit records complete? |
| Shops | Prescription checks, one-year retention, inspection on demand, advertising ban | Can premises and staffing meet a clinic standard at renewal? |
| Visitors | Foreign prescriptions not recognised; public consumption a nuisance offence; export prohibited | Are you assuming a 2022-era position that no longer holds? |
Now the part this article cannot supply: what is actually happening where you are. Notification-based frameworks are enforced unevenly, and this community spans provinces, patients, growers and shops all meeting different versions of the same rule. Tell us what you are seeing — how prescription checks run at the counter, what certification audits ask for, whether your province has added conditions on public consumption, and whether renewals are judged against clinic or old retail standards. The Royal Gazette text of the June 2025 notification has now been read directly, and its title, dates and parent statute are recorded in sections 8 and 12 above; what no gazette can tell anyone is how the rule is being applied at your counter, and that is the part we are asking you for.
This article is part of the Asiannabis Community educational series on cannabis law and safety. It is general information, not legal advice, and the framework has changed repeatedly — verify the current position before acting on it. Content is for educational purposes within jurisdictions where cannabis is legally permitted.