Cannabis News

Stay updated on the latest cannabis news and industry breakthroughs in Thailand and globally with The Thaiger. Dive into a comprehensive collection of articles, research, and analysis, focusing on various aspects of cannabis, its legalisation, medicinal properties, and its impact on society. Discover everything about the rapidly evolving world of cannabis!

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  • Police pounce on pot peddler in Phuket | Thaiger

    Police pounce on pot peddler in Phuket

    PHUKET: Police arrested a Myanmar national yesterday morning for selling marijuana at the Phuket Fishing Port in Koh Sirey. Min Min, 38, was caught with 295 grams of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and 980 baht in cash by officers from the Region 8 Police Crime Suppression Division.“Undercover officers tipped us off, so we staked out the port,” Maj Roongsak Maichandee said.“We…

  • Phuket Gazette World News: In lair of Mexico drug boss, vigilantes hold sway | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette World News: In lair of Mexico drug boss, vigilantes hold sway

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community In lair of Mexico drug boss, vigilantes hold sway Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: His AK-47 tossed onto a pristine leather sofa in the plush lair of a leader of one of Mexico’s most feared drug cartels, vigilante fighter “El Love” says he is longing for an end…

  • Phuket Gazette World News: Uruguay legalizes marijuana; Ukraine riot police advance; US nowhere near Afghan troop exit | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette World News: Uruguay legalizes marijuana; Ukraine riot police advance; US nowhere near Afghan troop exit

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Uruguay becomes first nation to legalise marijuana trade Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Uruguay became the first country to legalise the growing, sale and smoking of marijuana on Tuesday, a pioneering social experiment that will be closely watched by other nations debating drug liberalisation.A government-sponsored bill approved by…

  • Phuket kratom cooks caught in the act | Thaiger

    Phuket kratom cooks caught in the act

    PHUKET: Police in Kamala, on Phuket’s west coast, nabbed two men cooking up a batch of the illegal drug cocktail “4×100” at a workers’ camp on Friday.“Plain clothes police informed us that two men, Aekkaluk Phanchalard, 29, and Suthep Abdulsamak, 42, were making 4×100 at the camp,” explained Lt Suchart Chompooseang of the Kamala Police.Uniformed officers quickly assembled a squad…

  • Phuket gardening: pure, natural ingredients | Thaiger

    Phuket gardening: pure, natural ingredients

    PHUKET: Though it is a 19th century Bavarian concept, there are plenty of beer gardens or biergarten around Phuket. Some really are gardens in delightful sylvan settings under mature tamarind or flame trees. Think Nikita’s in Rawai, or the row of hostelries along the hilly road from Nai Harn to Rawai. But I am more interested in a different kind…

  • Phuket officials bag six kratom, dope peddlers in 24 hours | Thaiger

    Phuket officials bag six kratom, dope peddlers in 24 hours

    PHUKET: A Rassada village headman busted five men for possession of kratom and marijuana on Saturday – and yesterday, in concert with the Phuket Internal Security Office (PISO), arrested a man bringing kratom leaves to Phuket by bus. PISO deputy chief Thammarong Chuayaksorn and Baan Bang Chi Lao village chief Sangkom Sinthupradit, acting on a tip-off that kratom would be…

  • Airport drug-scam allegation puzzles authorities | Thaiger

    Airport drug-scam allegation puzzles authorities

    PHUKET: An Australian couple who told the Australian media that their luggage was tampered with and marijuana planted in it as they were leaving Bangkok may not have been telling the truth, the Phuket Gazette has found. Georgia (not her real name) told an Australian radio station (see here) that she and her boyfriend believe they were being set up…

  • Brothers arrested for hotel room drug depot shopfront | Thaiger

    Brothers arrested for hotel room drug depot shopfront

    PHUKET: Two brothers were arrested on drugs charges on Friday, with police suspecting that the siblings were using a hotel room in Cherng Talay to store and sell their wares. “We received a report from one of our undercover agents about the brothers renting a hotel room to store drugs, and we obtained a warrant to search their house in…

  • Busted: Alleged drug dealer’s operation across from Phuket school | Thaiger

    Busted: Alleged drug dealer’s operation across from Phuket school

    PHUKET: Police busted a Burmese drug dealer suspected of operating out of a house across the street from a Phuket school yesterday evening.Staking out a house across from Baan Kata School, Phuket Provincial Police officer Wanchai Palawan and his team waited for Anan Kanyarat, 36, to leave the residence before stopping and searching him.Police found 4.5 grams of marijuana on…

  • Police open fire as drug suspect rams Phuket Town blockade | Thaiger

    Police open fire as drug suspect rams Phuket Town blockade

    PHUKET: Police officers opened fire on a suspected drug dealer after he rammed his Honda Jazz into a police patrol pickup blocking his escape in Phuket Town early yesterday evening. Police were following the Honda Jazz of 28-year-old Thaweepong Kerdpol, a suspected drug dealer, after they received a tip-off that he was in the Chalong area. Mr Thaweepong stopped for…

  • Phuket Books: Madness in Miami | Thaiger

    Phuket Books: Madness in Miami

    PHUKET: After a career of nearly 20 years as a demented humor columnist for the Miami Herald, Dave Barry has turned to writing comic novels. Insane City (CP Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2013, 341pp) is his third. He dedicates it to “the people of this truly insane city of Miami, for making this book easy. Without you, this book wouldn’t…

  • British national’s extended holiday goes to pot at Phuket “dope hotel’ | Thaiger

    British national’s extended holiday goes to pot at Phuket “dope hotel’

    PHUKET: Phuket Immigration officers today arrested a British man for drug possession and for overstaying his visa by more than two* years. The arrest was made at the same resort, off Taina Road in Karon, where a Swedish man was arrested on drug charges last Thursday (story here). “At 11:30am, we received a report from our undercover officers to investigate…

  • Phuket Police bust ATM card fraud gang | Thaiger

    Phuket Police bust ATM card fraud gang

    PHUKET: Tourist Police have arrested two French nationals and a Tunisian man for operating an ATM card fraud scam in Phuket.The foreigners – named by police as French nationals Mahamond Mhoussin, 22, and Zaidi Ganzouai, 29, and Tunisian national Ramzi Adjemi, 31 – were presented to the press at the Phuket Tourist Police headquarters in Phuket Town this morning.“Tourist Police…

  • Driver with drugs in black plate taxi trunk gets attempted bribery charges to boot | Thaiger

    Driver with drugs in black plate taxi trunk gets attempted bribery charges to boot

    PHUKET: A Phuket bound “black plate” taxi was caught doing double-duty yesterday as it hauled 45 kilograms of kratom leaves back from Surat Thani after dropping a group of Russian tourists off in a resort in Nakorn Sri Thammarat. The drug-running duo in the car have been charged with the intent to sell a category five drug and for bribery…

  • Phuket Books: So it is with San Miguel | Thaiger

    Phuket Books: So it is with San Miguel

    PHUKET: Anything by T Corahessan Boyle is worth reading. His first two novels – Water Music, about two African expeditions up the Niger by 18th century Scottish explorer Mungo Park, and Budding Prospects, about modern day marijuana growers in northern California – rank among the two funniest novels ever written in English – are wildly exuberant dances of demonic prose.…

  • National defense volunteer nabbed with marijuana at Phuket checkpoint | Thaiger

    National defense volunteer nabbed with marijuana at Phuket checkpoint

    PHUKET: Thalang Police arrested a national defense volunteer with two bags of marijuana at a checkpoint in Thalang on Saturday. When police saw a white Toyota Vios attempting to avoid the checkpoint at Baan Yamu at 8:30pm, they stopped the car, driven by Supakij Benjamas, 29, and searched it. “We found two bags of marijuana and tobacco in a peanut…

  • World News: I killed Afghan insurgents – Prince Harry | Thaiger

    World News: I killed Afghan insurgents – Prince Harry

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Britain’s Prince Harry says he killed Afghan insurgents during tour Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Britain’s Prince Harry says he killed Afghan insurgents during sorties against the Taliban while on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan where he was a gunner in Apache attack helicopters.Queen Elizabeth’s 28-year-old…

  • Phuket safety police blitz nets 8 drug, 3 gun arrests in first week

    PHUKET: The first seven days of the month-long police safety boost (story here) in Phuket has yielded eight arrests on gun and drug charges in road checkpoint stops alone. Maj Gen Kittisan Detsunthonwat, Deputy Commander of Provincial Police Region 8, announced yesterday that so far his officers had seized over 300 grams of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine), 2,031 pills of…

  • Phuket Media Watch: Hindu pilgrims stream to mythical river in their millions for Maha Kumbh Mela | Thaiger

    Phuket Media Watch: Hindu pilgrims stream to mythical river in their millions for Maha Kumbh Mela

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Millions take to the Ganges at largest Hindu festival Reuters / Phuket Gazette PHUKET: Upwards of a million elated Hindu holy men and pilgrims took a bracing plunge in India’s sacred Ganges river to wash away lifetimes of sins today, in a raucous start to an…

  • Phuket Books: The Cambodian book of the dead | Thaiger

    Phuket Books: The Cambodian book of the dead

    PHUKET: A veteran journalist on the Asian beat, Tom Vater certainly knows Cambodia. In the crime novel The Cambodian Book of the Dead (Crime Wave Press, Hong Kong, 2012, 287pp), his descriptions of Phnom Penh, Kep and Siem Reap are spot on. The hero is Maier (no first name) who grew up in East Germany under the communist government, where…

  • The Curious Case of the Invisible Crown Prince Paras Shah | Thaiger

    The Curious Case of the Invisible Crown Prince Paras Shah

    PHUKET: Journalists trying to catch a glimpse of Nepal’s infamous former crown prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev, who was due to report to Phuket Provincial Court yesterday, were in for a long and ultimately fruitless wait.By midday, reporters who had been waiting since 9:30am, had still not clapped eyes on the former crown prince entering the court to report…

  • Phuket Lifestyle: Drug addiction – Yassine’s cautionary tale | Thaiger

    Phuket Lifestyle: Drug addiction – Yassine’s cautionary tale

    PHUKET: Morocco over the years has been romanticized by Hollywood and through the prose of numerous authors. It’s a place that conjures up images of bazaars, palaces and bustling market squares. But the vision of Morocco from those looking in, is a lot different to the one Yassine Darkaoui endured while looking out from the Northern city of Tangiers. Yassine…

  • Phuket Halloween kratom party a bust | Thaiger

    Phuket Halloween kratom party a bust

    PHUKET: Police arrested a Phuket hotel staff member with five kilograms of kratom leaves, allegedly being prepared for a “kratom party” on the island. On the eve of Halloween, Thanit Praditnipol, 21, was picked up by a sortie of officers led by Muang Chief Administrative Officer Thammarong Chuayaksorn as Mr Thanit stepped off a bus arriving from Trang province at…

  • Phuket Books: A question of savages | Thaiger

    Phuket Books: A question of savages

    PHUKET: I picked up Don Winslow’s Savages (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2010, 358pp) with a good deal of eagerness, having just finished the much-lauded prequel The Kings of Cool, which impressed me with its zany energy, veering between screenplay, poetic stanzas and wise-guy syncopated prose, deeply empathic with the surfer/grass dealer ethos of Laguna Beach, California. Winslow is a…

  • Phuket hacks back drug “growers’ in Thalang | Thaiger

    Phuket hacks back drug “growers’ in Thalang

    PHUKET: Thalang police and district officers hacked open a path for progress in the war on drugs in Phuket by cutting down more than 60 kratom trees in Srisoonthorn yesterday. Despite the trees being native to Southeast Asia, their leaves have been designated a controlled substance, in the same category as cannabis, since promulgation of the Kratom Act in 1943.…

  • Phuket Police bust heroin dealers in Cherng Talay | Thaiger

    Phuket Police bust heroin dealers in Cherng Talay

    PHUKET: Police in Phuket yesterday arrested a heroin dealer from Narathiwat, in Thailand’s troubled Deep South, seizing more than 80 grams of the drug as well as a stash of dried marijuana from one of his agents.The arrest was announced at a press conference led by Cherng Talay Police Superintendent Jirasak Siangsak yesterday morning. Col Jirasak presented to the press…

  • Phuket Gazette: Book and film review | Thaiger

    Phuket Gazette: Book and film review

    PHUKET: Oliver Stone’s new movie is Savages, a thriller about the drug trade in Laguna Beach, California. Starring a roll call of Hollywood A-listers – Blake Lively, Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta – the film is based on a crime novel by Don Winslow. A former Private Investigator in real life, Winslow has written 15 novels and is…

  • Thailand News: Verdict delay in war weapon case | Thaiger

    Thailand News: Verdict delay in war weapon case

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Verdict on eight Thais in war weapon case “could take two weeks” Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: The trial of eight Thais, arrested in Myanmar on charges of possessing war weapons, was scheduled to end today, but it could take two weeks before the court…

  • Thailand News: Update on drug bust; Leaders oppose curfew; Drink still flowed | Thaiger

    Thailand News: Update on drug bust; Leaders oppose curfew; Drink still flowed

    PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Drug packaging warehouse raided after Aussie tip-off Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: A Thai warehouse for terracotta pots was searched by police who believe that it served as a transit point for illicit drugs to be smuggled into Australia. National Police chief Priewpan Dhamapong said…

  • Phuket police take chainsaws to drug problem | Thaiger

    Phuket police take chainsaws to drug problem

    PHUKET: Chainsaw-wielding police took a cut out of the drug-supply in Phuket on yesterday, bringing down several enormous kratom trees on Luang Poh Road. Despite kratom trees being native to Southeast Asia, their leaves have been considered a controlled substance, in the same category as cannabis, since promulgation of the Kratom Act in 1943. The law made planting the tree…