Thailand’s Cabinet approved the draft Cannabis Control Act on 22 September 2026 and sent it to the House of Representatives. It is still a DRAFT, not law. Parliament has not read it yet, the House Public Health Committee is drafting its own version, and there is no date for passage. Until an Act is published in the Royal Gazette, the current notification and ministerial regulations stay in force.
Status as of 14 October 2026. Draft Cannabis Control Act: approved by Cabinet on 22 September 2026, now with the House of Representatives, not yet law.
1. The One Sentence That Matters
Thailand has not passed any primary cannabis legislation. The law in force is a Ministry of Public Health notification plus ministerial regulations. It is not an Act. Cabinet approval moved the draft to the House. It did not change any rule that applies today.
2. The Timeline, With Dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| April–July 2026 | Several rounds of public consultation on the draft, then called the Cannabis and Hemp Act |
| 16 July 2026 | The House Public Health Committee (chair: Sakoltee Phattiyakul) says it is speeding up its own Cannabis and Hemp Control Act, to be considered alongside the ministry bill (Thairath, 16 July 2026) |
| 20–21 July 2026 | DTAM submits the finished draft, renamed the Cannabis Control Act, to Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat |
| 3 August 2026 | Minister Pattana releases enforcement figures (section 7) and repeats that cannabis is for medical use only |
| 22 September 2026 | Cabinet approves the draft Cannabis Control Act and sends it to the House of Representatives (The Nation, 23 September 2026) |
| Now (October 2026) | With the House. DRAFT, not law. No first-reading date published at the time of this update |
Checked again in October 2026: several outlets confirm the Cabinet approval and that Minister Pattana Promphat announced it (The Nation; Thai Examiner, 23 September 2026). We found no published date for a first reading. In July, Thairath reported that the ministry bill was expected in Parliament around January 2027. Treat any 2027 date for Royal Gazette publication as a projection, not a schedule.
3. Cabinet Approval Is Not Law
The process from here is longer than most reporting suggests:
Drafted by DTAM → submitted to the Minister → Cabinet approval → House of Representatives (first reading, committee, second and third readings) → Senate → Royal assent → Royal Gazette publication → effective date.
The bill has finished the first three steps. Cabinet approved it on 22 September 2026. The text can still change at any of the later steps, and the bill can also simply stop moving.
This matters for businesses because a Cabinet-approved draft produces headlines that sound like law. It is not law.
4. What the Draft Proposes
This list is compiled from reports on the Cabinet-approved draft (The Nation; Thai Examiner, 23 September 2026). We have not seen the official text. Treat every item as subject to change.
Scope. Cannabis and extracts limited to medical treatment by authorised practitioners and to research. Recreational use is not allowed.
Licensing. Licences needed for cultivation, production, import, export and sale, issued by DTAM and generally valid for three years. Cultivation plots must be registered as small, medium or large, so their locations can be traced.
Existing shops. Current shop licences run out between 2026 and 2028. To renew under the new law, a shop would have to become a medical facility with a doctor on site.
Home cultivation. A May 2026 report quoted the Minister as saying non-commercial home growing would not be punished. We could not confirm this in any coverage of the Cabinet-approved draft. Reported, unverified.
Sales restrictions. No sales to anyone under 20, or to pregnant or breastfeeding women. No sales at schools, temples, dormitories, parks, zoos or amusement parks.
Marketing. Advertising of cannabis flower and resin banned. Promotion of smoking equipment restricted.
THC and flower are two separate rules. Under the rules already in force, cannabis or hemp extracts above 0.2% THC are Category 5 narcotics. Flower is a controlled herb under the B.E. 2568 notification whatever its THC level. Flower below 0.2% is still regulated, and flower above 0.2% does not become a narcotic because of that threshold. We have seen no reporting that the draft changes this.
Tracing. The Act would control cannabis from cultivation onward. Separately, DTAM already publishes registered outlets online with GPS coordinates and licence expiry dates (The Nation, 8 July 2026). The Minister says this map covers about 10,000 locations, more than 95% of the total.
Penalties. Clearer and heavier penalties than today. Unlicensed production, import, export or sale could bring criminal penalties. Specific figures have not been published.
Governance. A national cannabis committee chaired by the Public Health Minister.
Taken together, the draft mostly writes into law the direction ministerial rules have already taken since June 2025. On top of that it adds controls from cultivation onward and a renewal path for shops that requires medical status.
5. Three Scenarios After Cabinet Approval
These are scenarios, not predictions.
Scenario A: passes largely as approved. The House and Senate pass the Cabinet text with few changes. The outcome is broadly what section 4 describes.
Scenario B: substantially amended or merged. The House considers the Cabinet bill together with the Public Health Committee’s Cannabis and Hemp Control Act or other bills on the same subject, or rewrites it heavily in committee. Penalty levels, home cultivation, licence categories and the transition for existing shops could all end up different from the Cabinet draft.
Scenario C: stalls. The bill stalls in the House or the Senate, or Parliament is dissolved before it passes. Regulation then continues through notifications and ministerial regulations, as it has since 2022.
In all three scenarios, the B.E. 2568 notification and the two B.E. 2569 Ministerial Regulations stay in force until an Act is published in the Royal Gazette and takes effect.
6. What Is Actually Binding Today
Cannabis flower is a controlled herb under the Notification of the Ministry of Public Health Re: Controlled Herbs (Cannabis) B.E. 2568, issued 26 June 2025. It can only be dispensed against a PT 33 prescription, for at most 30 days per prescription, with no refills, and from a GACP-certified source. Online sale, advertising and recreational use are all prohibited. Two Ministerial Regulations B.E. 2569 tightened licensing: the extract regulation took effect 26 April 2026 and Controlled Herbs (No. 2) on 30 April 2026. Neither changed the PT 33 rules. Licences issued under the earlier 2020 hemp and 2021 cannabis regulations remain valid only until 31 December 2026 (The Nation, 28 April 2026). For full detail, see forum topic 1330 (the 2022–2026 legal map).
7. Enforcement Is Not Waiting for the Act
Figures released by Minister Pattana at a 3 August 2026 meeting cover the campaign running since October 2025: 1,326 shops inspected, 83 seizures, more than 109 million baht of products seized, 40 people or businesses facing legal action, 84 licences suspended, 4 revoked and 39 appeals considered (ASEAN NOW, 4 August 2026).
Separately, the Customs Department says that from 17 June 2026, illegal cannabis exports carry a fine of 30,000 baht per kilogram seized, plus forfeiture (Pattaya Mail, 19 June 2026). This is a customs fine on smuggling, not a fee on licensed exports. The report does not name the legal instrument behind it.
In practice, the move to a medical-only market is already happening through enforcement of existing rules. An Act would make that direction formal.
8. How to Read Any Update You See
Which instrument? A notification, a ministerial regulation and an Act are three different things, each with its own process. A report that says “Thailand’s new cannabis law” without saying which one is not usable.
Which stage? Drafted, consulted, submitted, Cabinet-approved, read, passed, gazetted, in force. A headline about a draft is not a headline about a law.
Which date? On this subject, an article that is six months old can describe an outdated position with complete confidence.
Does it cite the Royal Gazette? A publication reference and date, with volume and part number, shows the reporter looked at the instrument itself and not just at another article about it.
If you operate in Thailand: has anything changed for you in practice since April, or has the change so far been only on paper? And if you have seen the text of the draft Act itself, not just reporting about it, that would be the most useful thing anyone could post here. Please cite the source and the date.
General information, not legal advice. The legislative process described here is not complete. Check the Royal Gazette and talk to qualified Thai counsel before acting.