Location and Shop Description
High Got You is located in the small “Aqua Mall” in Bangkok’s Ari neighborhood; a ten-minute walk from either the Ari or Saphan Khwai BTS stations.
The shop fits in the trendy neighborhood of hip cafes, grills and restaurants and mixes naturally, locally, and fluently with its surroundings. A casual passerby will look through the large windows and admire the organization, the neatness and professionality, and the simple beauty of the shop without realizing they are admiring a cannabis dispensary. The dispensary is a continuation of the neighborhood, it blends in and belongs.
The shop, charming, roomy, immaculately decorated, is reminiscent of an art gallery. Shelves purposefully built into the concrete walls display numerous colorful and eccentric bongs. A sleek minimalist table in the middle of the shop exhibits ten strains of the shop’s cannabis. A glass case towards the back corner of the shop houses rolling paper, grinders, elaborate and intricate pipes, butane lighters and fuel, and other cannabis paraphernalia. Behind that case, large bongs, additional strains of cannabis, and the shop’s cannabis menu du jour are exhibited. Chill but engaging and upbeat R&B flows through the speakers (great music for a good sativa hybrid).
A smoking lounge on the second floor is a work in progress. While it is being developed it remains open and ready for customers’ use. The comfortable and functional lounge lacks the beauty of the ground floor. However, eager tokers will be happy to chill and enjoy their newly acquired flower on the premises before exploring the endless dining options in the vicinity.
The People
High Got You is owned and run by four friends who discovered cannabis in their not too long ago university days. The foursome started sampling commonly available brick but soon after began their own exploration of high-quality strains and best growing practices.
When Thailand initially created a legal framework to grow medicinal cannabis for local hospitals about four years ago, the friends jumped on the opportunity to partner with a local university and grow for hospital use. The foursome divided their responsibilities according to their interests and talents: splitting duties between horticulture, teaching local farmers proper growing techniques, and procuring the best technology for proper indoor growing. The partners spent months at a time living at the farm, keeping an eye on the plants, overseeing the farmers, and ensuring quality.
When legalization of cannabis came about on June 9th, the friends were caught by surprise but quickly adjusted their focus to open High Got You by August 1. The concept and philosophy of the store reflects the goals and interests of the partners: clean, locally, and properly grown cannabis sold in a “normal way”.
Organic Farming
Organic and proper farming has been a focus since the early dorm days of the partners. Brick weed, then the most commonly available, was filled with pesticides and had inconsistent qualities. Growing cannabis was self-education which came with the reward of high-quality flower. That education was passed on to the farm and hospital. Indeed, some of the strains available at High Got You are still specifically grown for the hospital. Your dedicated correspondent sampled the house Mimosa Evo strain, one of the hospital strains which will be reviewed in a subsequent article and can confirm the medical strength and quality.
“There is a big difference between organically grown cannabis and cannabis grown with pesticides. You may not be able to look at the bud and see the difference, but when you smoke it, it is just not the same. Organically grown cannabis tastes better, feels better and doesn’t leave a headache or bad lingering effects. We want to explain this to our customers—and for them to understand that there is a difference.”
“The Thai market is still very new and for many people, weed is just weed. They never tried it. They don’t know the differences. But we find that people do want to know when we engage with them. This is why it is so important to show them: different strains, different growing practices, organic versus chemical.”
“Growing organically is much harder than with chemicals. When you use pesticides, chemicals, the crop can withstand more. Less plants will die. You can sell more weed and make more money. But the product is inferior.”
“We have plans to open a second shop, but we cannot source enough properly grown cannabis to supply a second shop right now. So, we set up a second farm which will have its first harvest towards the end of this year. The second shop will then open early next year so that our customers may enjoy more properly grown high quality organic cannabis.”
Cannabis Culture is Normal
The High Got You partners are young, with an average age of 29. Their exposure to cannabis came through university with minimal influence from international cannabis culture or the established Thai historical and existing underground cannabis culture. For the partners the goal of cannabis culture is for it to be “normal, status quo” to blend in seamlessly throughout greater everyday pedestrian culture.
“The cannabis community is good, its chill and relaxed. But when you turn on the TV or read the newspaper you hear about violent cannabis users, people killing, doing crazy things. This is just not true, these are lies. What will happen if you smoke too much cannabis, maybe you will stay in bed longer and sleep. That’s it!”
“We want people to be educated, whether they use cannabis or not. They need to understand it is safer than having a beer. But when you see someone having a beer, no one notices or cares. The same should be for cannabis. We want the culture to get to a point that if someone walks down the streets and sees someone with cannabis, it’s just a normal unnoticeable thing.”
“This is what our shop is for. This is how our shop is designed. It’s a welcoming, clean, nice place for people to come in, browse and make purchases in a normal way. It is purposefully designed to be a place anyone would want to come in and easily look at our strains and our products, ask questions and learn. We want to be open, not intimidating, we do not want to play into any stereotypes of the people who are against cannabis.”
“We want people to come in and buy weed, use it in a normal way and continue to be part of the community and society in a normal way.”
Conclusion
The High Got You partners are the youngest group of cannabis entrepreneurs I have come across. They are smart, passionate, focused, and sincere. I truly enjoyed my time hanging out with them and learned quite a bit. Their perspective, that Cannabis Culture should be a mainstream, normal and an unremarkable element of our everyday culture strikes me as being pure and true.
I come from an older generation where cannabis was celebrated for both its medicinal, psychoactive qualities as well as a romanticized part of an underground but easily accessible culture. However, for cannabis and Cannabis Culture to be sustainable, it must be part of and accepted as part of the general common culture. I still believe in further developing a distinct Thai Cannabis Culture, however this cannot be segregated from our everyday lives and culture. Thai Cannabis Culture must be accepted as “normal” a part of the tapestry of our culture in aggregate.
High Got You achieves its goals: It is an approachable, beautiful, comfortable, and “normal” store which seamlessly fits in the Ari neighborhood. The cannabis is high quality. The owners are friendly, knowledgeable, passionate, and thoughtful. Lastly, the smoking lounge allows users to chill and smoke before exploring the neighborhood. We at HighThailand recommend High Got You and look forward to our next visit.
