BANGKOK – In Bangkok these days, it’s hard not to notice the weed dispensaries catering to tourists who have multiplied since the government decriminalised the drug in 2022.
“Smart money’s going to come in,” Mr Sirasit Praneenij, a co-CEO of the marijuana farming company Medicana, said recently at an indoor cannabis farm in outer Bangkok. He was wearing a white lab coat and standing near grow rooms packed with LED lights, advanced watering systems and row after row of young marijuana plants.
Less than a year later, there were about 12,000 registered dispensaries by some estimates, more than in the US.An obvious draw for investors is that Thailand’s cannabis industry pairs nicely with a prime source of customers: tourists, of whom there were nearly 40 million annually before the pandemic, and who are now starting to return. Growers say that tourists, not locals, are their primary target market.
An obvious draw for investors is that Thailand’s cannabis industry pairs nicely with a prime source of customers: tourists. PHOTO: NYTIMES “Companies that are operating properly, that have a good management team and that are well capitalised will be the ones that end up staying around,” said Mr Porter, who previously worked in start-ups in New York and Miami.
Several cannabis entrepreneurs said they expect prices to stabilise once there is regulatory clarity. PHOTO: NYTIMES