Thailand's Cannabis and Hemp Act Revived: The July 2026 Draft

Thailand’s long-stalled Cannabis and Hemp Act is back on the table. On Tuesday 7 July 2026, Public Health Minister Pattana Promphat pushed the draft forward, framing it as the legal backbone for a cannabis system restricted to medical use. If it passes, it would give Thailand its first standalone cannabis statute — and, for the first time, reach all the way back to how the plant is grown.

The move lands against a sharper political threat. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, the same politician who led the 2022 decriminalisation, has warned that the government may “shut down” the industry outright if legislation keeps stalling. Here is what the revived draft actually does, and why the stakes just rose.

The short version

• Minister Pattana Promphat advanced the draft Cannabis and Hemp Act — also called the Cannabis and Hemp Control Act — on 7 July 2026, aiming to lock cannabis to medical use.
• For the first time, the law would control cannabis from the cultivation stage, something today’s ministerial rules do not touch.
• Cannabis shops would have to operate as medical facilities with a doctor or qualified practitioner on site, supervising every sale.
• Violations would carry “relatively high and serious penalties.” No figures have been set — see the caution below.
• The draft cleared public consultation in June 2026 but did not reach deliberation this session. It remains pending, not law.

For the rules that still apply while this waits, see our Thailand cannabis law overview.

What is new: control from the ground up

The headline change is scope. Thailand’s existing cannabis controls sit in ministerial regulations under the Traditional Medicine Act, and they govern the retail and prescription end of the chain. They do not reach cultivation. The draft Act would — putting the grow stage itself under statutory control rather than leaving it to lower-tier rules.

That matters because cultivation is where supply originates. Bringing it inside the law is the government’s answer to a system in which flower has been easy to grow and hard to trace.

Shops become clinics, on paper and in practice

Under the draft, a cannabis shop could not simply sell flower over a counter. It would have to function as a medical facility with a doctor or other qualified practitioner physically present to supervise dispensing. The stated aim is to stop excessive supply reaching any one individual — a direct response to the criticism that “medical” shops have been serving recreational demand.

This tracks the direction Thailand has already taken through regulation. Cannabis flower has been a prescription-only controlled herb since 26 June 2025, and a separate mandate is already pushing storefront shops to convert into clinics and pharmacies. The draft Act would give that shift a firmer legal footing. For how the conversion requirement works today, see our dispensary-to-clinic conversion explainer and the medical cannabis overview.

Penalties: serious, but unspecified

The draft is described as carrying “relatively high and serious penalties” for violations. No specific fine amounts or prison terms have been published, so operators should treat any circulating numbers with caution until the text is finalised and passed. What is clear is the direction, not the figures: the government wants deterrence with teeth.

Where the draft stands

Revived does not mean enacted. The draft completed its public consultation in June 2026 — following an earlier round that ran 22 April to 21 May 2026 — but it did not reach deliberation in the current parliamentary session. It is pending, not law.

Until it passes, nothing in the draft is enforceable. The rules in force remain the interim ministerial regulations under the Traditional Medicine Act. If the Act does pass, it would supersede those regulations and become Thailand’s governing cannabis statute. We covered the earlier stage in our Cannabis and Hemp Act consultation report.

The enforcement backdrop

The legislative push is running alongside a physical clean-up of the market. Of roughly 18,000 shops that have operated since 2023, about 6,000 — nearly a third — are illicit or hold expired licences and face closure. Another 6,000 or so licences are expected to expire across 2026 and 2027, thinning the field further even without new legislation.

The political threat behind the bill

Part of the reason the draft moved now is Anutin Charnvirakul. The Prime Minister — historically the architect of Thailand’s 2022 cannabis decriminalisation — has signalled that if stalled legislation fails to curb misuse, the government may “shut down” or re-criminalise the industry altogether, according to the South China Morning Post. His warning followed a spike in seizures of Thai-origin cannabis abroad, in the United Kingdom, Germany, Indonesia and Hong Kong. We track that enforcement wave in our cannabis export smuggling crackdown report.

That is a sharp turn for the politician who opened the door in the first place. It also reframes the draft Act: for the industry, passing a controlled medical framework may now be the alternative to losing legal cannabis entirely.

What it means for businesses

If you run a licensed shop, plan for the medical-facility model, not the storefront one. The draft, the conversion mandate and the licence shakeout all point the same way — toward practitioner-supervised dispensing. Waiting for the Act to pass before adapting is a gamble, given that the interim rules already demand much of the same. Our business compliance hub tracks the operating requirements as they change.

What it means for patients

For patients, the near-term picture is stable: flower stays prescription-only, sold through licensed and increasingly clinical outlets. The medium-term risk is political. If the shutdown threat were acted on, legal access itself could narrow. For now, the safest path is to buy only from a licensed outlet — you can check a shop’s DTAM registration before you do.

The bottom line

Thailand is trying to do two things at once: build a permanent legal home for medical cannabis, and threaten to demolish the house if the rules keep being ignored. The revived Cannabis and Hemp Act is the constructive half of that message. Whether it passes, and how hard the penalties bite, will shape what Thailand’s cannabis market looks like by 2027.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Cannabis rules in Thailand are changing quickly. Verify current requirements with DTAM or a qualified professional before making business or medical decisions.