Cannabis rules in Thailand
HOW
A tourist cannot lawfully buy or carry cannabis flower without a prescription from a Thai practitioner. Shops still sell it, and that is where visitors get into trouble.
- RX LIMIT
- 30 DAYS
- PUBLIC SMOKING
- ≤ ฿25,000
- IN FORCE
Ministry of Health notice of 25 June 2025; fine from the Public Health Act, section 74 (public smoking, after an official’s order).
Short answer
Checked against the official pages on 5 November 2026 · Last change: 29 October 2026
Since the notice of 25 June 2025, cannabis flower is a controlled herb. The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s notice to visitors says tourists may not use, buy, carry or transport it unless they have a valid prescription issued in Thailand. A prescription covers no more than 30 days of use. A prescription from another country is not a Thai one.
Smoking in public is a separate problem. The Public Health Act lets a local official order a person to stop smoke or smell that bothers others in a public place; ignoring the order carries up to 3 months in jail or 25,000 baht. Reports of group fines on beaches and of police stops in tourist areas are listed below, with the source of each.
Read this page as a summary of the texts we read, not as legal advice. The rules have changed several times since 2022, and a new Cannabis Control Act is being drafted.
Show the official wording
Quoted as published, with the source. Thai text is followed by our translation.
Ministry of Health notice, 25 June 2025, item 3
“ข้อ ๓ ให้กัญชา ซึ่งเป็นพืชในสกุล Cannabis วงศ์ Cannabaceae เฉพาะส่วนของช่อดอก เป็นสมุนไพรควบคุม”
Cannabis, the plant of the genus Cannabis, family Cannabaceae, only the flower buds, is a controlled herb.
Ministry of Public Health (Royal Gazette), 25 June 2025
Ministry of Health notice, 25 June 2025, prescription limit
“การสั่งจ่ายตามวรรคสอง ให้กำหนดจำนวนหรือปริมาณการใช้ตามความจำเป็นเพื่อการรักษาตัวเป็นการเฉพาะที่ใช้ได้ไม่เกินสามสิบวัน”
The quantity prescribed is set by what the treatment needs, for use of no more than thirty days.
Ministry of Public Health (Royal Gazette), 25 June 2025
Tourism Authority of Thailand, 27 June 2025
“Tourists are strictly prohibited from using, buying, carrying, or transporting cannabis flowers unless they have a valid prescription issued in Thailand”
Tourism Authority of Thailand (thailand.go.th), 27 June 2025
Public Health Act B.E. 2535 as amended in 2017, section 74
“ผู้ใดไม่ปฏิบัติตามคำสั่งของเจ้าพนักงานท้องถิ่นตามมาตรา ๒๑ มาตรา ๒๒ มาตรา ๒๗ วรรคหนึ่ง ... ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสามเดือน หรือปรับไม่เกินสองหมื่นห้าพันบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ”
Whoever does not obey the order of the local official under section 27, paragraph 1, faces imprisonment of up to three months or a fine of up to 25,000 baht, or both.
Office of the Official Information Commission (text of the act), 22 June 2017
What a prescription means
- Who writes it
- A licensed practitioner in Thailand: a medical doctor, a Thai traditional or applied Thai traditional doctor, a local healer, a Chinese-medicine practitioner, a pharmacist or a dentist (the notice’s list). The prescription is for medical benefit.
- How much
- The quantity is what the treatment needs, for use of no more than 30 days.
- The form
- The notice says the form is set by the Director-General of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine. The official text names the Director-General as the one who sets the form; the form’s own notice is outside what we read, so we do not name it or say what it must contain.
- Who sells
- Only licensed shops. Ministerial Regulation No. 2, published in the Gazette on 30 April 2026, requires a flower shop to have a DTAM-trained staff member present at all opening hours and an odour and smoke removal system, and renewals are judged by the same criteria. Online and vending-machine sales, advertising, and sales for smoking on the premises are banned (the notice).
- Cost and clinics
- The official texts we read set no fee amount, and no report we read gives a confirmed one. Clinics that sell a prescription together with the product have a stake in the sale, and this site links none.
Where it goes wrong
What the texts say, and what is only reported.
| Place | What applies | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Streets, markets, any public place | A local official can order you to stop smoke or smell. Not obeying: up to 3 months in jail or 25,000 baht. | Official text (Public Health Act, sections 25, 27, 74); the 2022 notice on cannabis smoke was read only as an official summary |
| Beaches | A Reddit thread reports friends fined 25,000 baht each for smoking on Patong beach. The Act’s ceiling is 25,000. | Report only (Reddit thread title, read by the planning project) |
| Temples, dormitories, parks, zoos, amusement parks | No sale of controlled herb there (the notice). The notice does not say what happens to a person who smokes there. “Dormitory” means a dormitory under the dormitory law, not a hotel. | Official text (notice) |
| Hotels and rentals | Not covered by the texts we read. The hotel’s own rules apply, and smoke or smell that bothers others can still lead to an official’s order. | Not stated in the texts read |
| Shops | Licensed shops sell flower only with a prescription. A shop that is unlicensed or sells online breaks the notice. | Official text (notice, regulation) |
The fine: 25,000 or 5,000?
The Public Health Act, section 74, as amended in 2017, gives up to 3 months or 25,000 baht, and only for not obeying a local official’s written order under section 27. It is not an on-the-spot fine for smoking.
Some reports give “up to 5,000 baht”. By the official text, 5,000 baht appears in the Act only for building owners (section 75); by press reports, the fine is “up to 5,000 baht”, with no official text behind it. We treat 5,000 as an unconfirmed report.
If police stop you
- Reddit thread titles from the past year describe friends fined on Patong beach, and a police stop on Sukhumvit after a purchase at a dispensary. These are one-sided accounts; we cannot check them.
- Keep the Thai prescription with the product. Ask what the offence is. Do not hand over cash in the street: payment goes through an official process with a receipt.
- This is practical information, not legal advice; for a charge, call your embassy and a lawyer.
Bringing it in or out
- By the official notice, exporting controlled herb for trade is a licensed activity, and the notice does not address a traveller carrying cannabis in or out; by the TAT notice, tourists may not carry or transport flower without a Thai prescription. Do not try either; airports are searched.
- Extract products with more than 0.2% THC by weight are Category 5 narcotics, according to the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine. We did not read the regulation itself.
What may change: the Cannabis Control Bill
- The cabinet approved a draft Cannabis Control Act on 2026-09-22, saying cannabis is for medical and health use, not recreation. It is not law yet.
- A member of parliament submitted a separate bill to the House on 2026-10-29. No official source we read says where the cabinet’s draft stands in the House.
STEP BY STEP
If you want it for a medical reason
The order the texts imply.
See a Thai practitioner
A licensed doctor or practitioner from the notice’s list writes the prescription, for no more than 30 days of use.
Buy at a licensed shop
Not online, not from a vending machine, not from a street seller.
Carry the prescription
Keep it with the product whenever you carry it.
Do not smoke in public
Smoke and smell in a public place can lead to an official’s order, and then to the fine above.
Leave it behind
The official texts we read contain no permission to take it out of the country.
What changed, and when
Rules, fees and counters that changed, oldest first. A row is added for every change; earlier rows are never rewritten.
| Date | Change | Basis | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | A Ministry of Health notice makes cannabis smoke and smell a public-health nuisance under the Public Health Act (the date is from summaries; we did not open the notice). | Reports only | Parliament Library |
| 25 June 2025 | Gazette notice: cannabis flower is a controlled herb. Sale only on a prescription of up to 30 days; no sale for smoking, online, by vending machine or at temples, dormitories and parks; in force from 26 June 2025. | Official | Ministry of Public Health (Royal Gazette) · Tourism Authority of Thailand (thailand.go.th) |
| 26 March 2026 | A regulation puts extracts above 0.2% THC in Category 5 (the date is from an unofficial law index; we read the Department’s guide page, not the regulation). | Reports only | Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine |
| 30 April 2026 | Ministerial Regulation No. 2: a flower shop needs a trained staff member at all opening hours and an odour and smoke removal system; renewals follow the same criteria (published in the Gazette; the commencement clause is outside what we read). | Official | Ministry of Public Health (Royal Gazette) |
| 22 September 2026 | The cabinet approves a draft Cannabis Control Act for medical and health use. | Official | Ministry of Public Health, Public Relations |
| 29 October 2026 | A member of parliament submits a separate Cannabis Control Bill to the House. | Official | House of Representatives |
Questions
- Is cannabis legal in Thailand for tourists?
- Not in the way it was in 2022–2025. Flower is a controlled herb, and the TAT notice says tourists may not use, buy, carry or transport it without a prescription issued in Thailand.
- Can I use a prescription or medical card from my country?
- The TAT notice speaks of a prescription issued in Thailand. By the TAT notice only a Thai prescription counts; none of the texts we read accepts a foreign one.
- Can I smoke at my hotel?
- The texts we read do not cover hotels. Hotel rules apply, and smoke or smell that bothers others can lead to an official’s order.
- How big is the fine for smoking in public?
- The Act sets up to 3 months or 25,000 baht, for not obeying an official’s order. By press reports it is 5,000 baht, which no official text we read supports.
- Can I take cannabis home?
- By the official texts we read there is no permission to take it out, and customs and drug laws of your own country apply too. Do not.
- Will the rules change?
- A Cannabis Control Bill is moving. The cabinet approved a draft on 22 September 2026; it is not law.