Sellers of cannabis on Pattaya Walking Street require licenses but cannot obtain them

After cannabis was decriminalized, the street vendors of Pattaya could be the next target in the ongoing battle to bring cannabis sales under control. The police are informing market and street vendors that they cannot sell cannabis products without a license and are issuing a warning. The caveat is that permits can only be obtained by businesses with a physical location, which pop-up stands lack. This is a requirement for acquiring a license. According to a report published yesterday night in The Pattaya News, police officers have informed street vendors that they will be asked to leave Pattaya Walking Street if they cannot present a valid license. The chief of police in Pattaya highlighted that since cannabis is a controlled narcotic, only vendors with the proper permissions are permitted to sell the drug. In June, when cannabis was ultimately decriminalized and made lawful, relatively few regulations and prohibitions also became official. Advocates of legalization within the government, such as Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul and his Bhumjaithai Party, have stated that they are only interested in the medical usage of marijuana.

The administration is currently engaged in a tug-of-war between those who support cannabis legalization and those who do not. Both parties appear to agree that some type of regulation is necessary, but one is asking for stricter rules while the other is advocating for the substance to be made illegal again. As the rules are introduced, rejected, reworked, and debated for months, entrepreneurial and zealous individuals who create small firms are placed in limbo. One million people already had licenses to plant, harvest, sell, and use cannabis before the majority of rules were implemented. Numerous individuals are investing all of their funds in smoke shops and booths that sell a variety of cannabis-infused products. The government will finally decide on a policy, and that policy will invariably be adverse to at least some of these small businesses if not all of them. Recent modifications to the regulations prohibit the use of vending machines, commercial advertising, and internet sales. The authorities have conducted driver’s license checks and educational outreach in the same manner. As a result of recently enacted legislation outlawing smoking in businesses, hotels, and other semi-public venues, a number of establishments have built separate smoking rooms. For the time being, it is probable that street vendors such as those on Pattaya Walking Street could be put out of business because they will be unable to obtain the license required to sell recently legalized cannabis products.