Thai Weed Club Raided
‘The Weed Club’ in Patong, Thailand, has been raided by a crack police enforcement team on the hunt for illegal products – only the products in question were normal vapes
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by Dave Cross
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A crack Thai police enforcement team has raided ‘The Weed Club’ in Patong and an associated address in nearby Phuket town. The operation was reported by the Royal Thai Government national news service as being targeted at the sale of illegal products – but in a bizarre twist of logic, these products were normal vapes that smokers use to quit tobacco.
Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat proudly announced that the police had received a tip-off about illicit sales taking place and so he immediately instructed Phuket Vice Governor Sattha Thongkham to organise an enforcement operation.
Vice Governor Thongkham leapt into action and immediately told Chief Administrative Officer Suwit Suriyawong, Muang Phuket District Chief Worasit Putjeeb and Kathu District Chief Theeraphong Chuaychu to organise an enforcement operation.
The waterfall of responsibility continued.
Phuket Provincial Defense Chief Akara Suwatthikul became the next in line to be roped in to this very obvious case of clear danger to the public, being told to do something urgently.
He did – he told the head of the Department of Special Investigation regional office that it was now their responsibility, “to prevent and suppress the sale of Illegal electronic cigarettes at these two shops”.
And so, a raid team was formed, which swooped on The Weed Club and uncovered the incredibly dangerous products.
At the store, officers discovered:
- 482 vapes
- 787 drip tips
- 74 whole bottles of juice
At the private address, officers discovered:
- 25 vapes
- 229 drip tips
- 257 packs of cigarettes
The island of Phuket would probably have said that they all had the soundest night’s sleep in ages thanks to the strike against vaping.
Thai cannabis facts
- Medical cannabis with no restriction on THC content has been available to patients with a doctor’s note since 2018
- Cannabis products with THC content not exceeding 0.2% has been legal for sale since 2022
- Nobody under 20 can purchase cannabis products
- Cannabis can be sold as plant parts, products, and edibles
- Products aren’t limited to cannabis shops, even supermarkets sell products like infused drinks
- Thailand's health minister Anutin Charnvirakul pledged to give away one million cannabis plants to households in 2022 in order to promote a cash crop to boost the nation’s economy
- Smoking cannabis is banned in public areas including beaches
- The Thai government is currently consulting on whether to ban cannabis all over again
Two men were arrested as a result of the vape raid and charged for breaking three laws covering the stocking, importation and sale of electronic cigarettes and related items.
The owner and management team at The Weed Club were somehow not charged with any offences.
Thailand has banned vaping multiple times. Government scientists justified the last major ban by referring to research they invented proclaiming the danger secondhand vape poses to citizens in Bangkok…which happens to be a city where workers have been advised to work from home in 2023 and 2024 due to extremely high levels of air pollution.
Consumer advocates remain hopeful that the government will eventually accept the benefits of vaping and tobacco harm reduction.
Photo Credit:
Background cannabis leaf photo by Matthew Brodeur on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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