BANGKOK, THAILAND – More than 7,000 cannabis shops failed to renew their licenses and closed after the government sharply restricted the industry to medical use, hitting especially small operators who had invested heavily in rents, renovations and staff.
Licenses lapse as early boom stalls
According to the Health Ministry, there were 18,433 cannabis shops nationwide as of 28 December 2025, but 8,636 of them allowed their licenses to expire over the previous year. Only 1,339 shops, or about 15.5 percent, renewed their permits, while 7,297 exited the market, reducing the number of active outlets to 11,136.
From decriminalization to a policy reversal
Many of the affected stores had opened only after cannabis was decriminalized on 9 June 2022, expecting to benefit from a new sector. Experts estimated that the closures wiped out investments worth tens of millions of baht, including spending on rents, refurbishments, equipment and labor.
Government shifts to “medical only” model
Under the policy change by the Pheu Thai-led government, recreational use was again banned and cannabis was tightly limited to medical and scientific purposes. A new ministerial regulation made compliance significantly harder, including a requirement that each cannabis shop have a licensed or registered traditional medical practitioner on site.
Tighter rules on prescriptions and sales
Since early February 2026, the Health Ministry had enforced a strictly medical framework by classifying cannabis flowers as a “controlled medicinal herb” that could be dispensed only with a prescription. Patients and tourists now needed a prescription or medical certificate after consulting a doctor, supplies were capped at a 30-day amount, and sales in certain public spaces as well as online sales were banned.
Small Bangkok retailers squeezed
A cannabis shop operator in Bangkok said he had started with an initial investment of 200,000 baht and expanded his business to nearly 1 million baht for remodeling, equipment and inventory.
“At the beginning I considered this policy viable because the government presented it as an economic opportunity, but with the new laws, the requirement for specialized staff and the rising costs, our business is no longer sustainable,”
said the shop owner, adding that his license would expire in October 2026 and was in practice impossible to renew under the new conditions.
Health concerns drive political pressure
Pressure on policymakers also came from the health sector, where rising costs and case numbers fueled doubts about the earlier liberal phase of cannabis policy. Dr. Bandit Sorpaisan of the Center of Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Canada described the previous approach as an example of decriminalization without a clear regulatory framework that would lead to higher long-term health and economic burdens.
Sharp rise in cannabis-related emergencies
Data from the Health Data Center of the Health Ministry showed a 3.5-fold increase in cannabis poisonings since the opening, a 6.5-fold rise in dependence and a similar increase in cannabis-induced psychoses. In one major tourist destination, cannabis-related emergency admissions climbed from zero to more than 90 cases per month, with over 80 percent of patients being foreign visitors, undermining confidence in the tourist hotspot.
Smaller market and uncertain outlook
The requirement for a doctor’s prescription for every purchase was intended, according to the Health Ministry, to ensure cannabis was used exclusively for medical purposes, while the government said patient access would remain secure. Observers expected the strictly medical framework to shrink the market substantially and leave only a small number of highly specialized providers able to survive in the cannabis industry.