Looking back at 2024

Tomorrow we will publish our “Best of 2024”, but first we wanted to look back at 2024, a crucial year for cannabis in Thailand. The year that cannabis became “normal” or at least “more normal” and accepted as a permanent part of our societal fabric. But 2024 did not start off that way. In fact, perhaps the biggest annoyance of 2024 was the persistent calls and political maneuvering to “recriminalize” our favorite plant which led to an incredible amount of stress on our growers and the community. In sloppy not so behind the scenes, groups of anti-cannabis orphans suddenly appeared out of nowhere issuing petitions with hundreds of thousands of questionable signatures calling for the recriminalization of cannabis. An unscientific online poll was half-heartedly used by authorities to indicate that there was no choice but to walk back legalization. Local and international press jumped up and down hysterically proclaiming that the green days of easy and legal access to cannabis were doomed. Foreign investors panicked and backed out of plans to invest. But the politics and histrionics of re-criminalization was just postering. In the end, as expected, two bros, representing great and concentrated amounts of economic and political power in Thailand, played a few rounds of golf, sang a few choruses of karaoke, and came to a pragmatic understanding sealing the status quo. Or at least protecting the key aspects of the status quo. Everyone took a deep sigh of relief—and then another deep breath of their favorite cultivar. Cannabis was and is here to stay. The naysayers, throngs of mobilized orphans, and even the politicians came to a thundering silence and disappeared. The community remains intact and now we can look to the future with a fair amount of certainty, for the first time ever.

UpperCut Launch Event in January 2024

But there are other key stories of 2024 which will have a big impact on our industry in 2025. For the first time the demand for cannabis, both through legal and illicit channels, outside of Thailand outpaced the illegal import market here. Large high quality commercial growers began exporting buds to Australia and other markets with stringent and high standards. While smugglers, including those who were previously involved in the import of dubious buds, began exporting buds to territories where cannabis is not yet legal. Two avenues of export were introduced with different levels of quality: The first with a high level of quality, oversight and testing for established and legal markets. The second with zero accountability, unchecked quality, and questionable safety (similar to the garbage which used to be dumped in Thailand not that long ago—like buds sprayed with all kinds of poisons).

UpperCut HipHopSesh at PHC was insane

2024 saw Thailand send its cleanest and most verified cannabis to legal markets abroad—while at the same time dumping its most questionable buds in foreign black markets. Leaving the question: What is remaining here at home? The answer—as observed by HighThailand as both journalists and consumers of cannabis—is a lot of everything. We have been showcasing high quality accountable growers since HighThailand’s inception, and 2024 introduced more high-quality growers following acceptable practices for quality and safety. But there is still a plethora of dodgy weed out there. We were shocked to see spray on terps on prominently displayed buds at this year’s Hemp Expo! That is just not acceptable!

Lucky for our community, 2024 continued to bring responsible growers and consumers together, and we expect that 2025 will see the first set of industry led standards for quality and safety to protect both our community at home but also help bolster smaller farms’ abilities to export legally. We intend to be heavily involved in promoting common sense grower friendly and led safety standards in the coming year.

Cannabis and its community became more normal and accepted in 2024. The number of people using cannabis for health purposes seems to have grown exponentially—with people trying cannabis (or admitting) for the first time, with understanding and discussion about how effective and harmless it really is. Our niche culture has merged with popular culture with the explosion of cannabis influenced artists (like the Jukks, Bad Bitch and Big Roll)—our hip hop UpperCut events at PHC were amongst our most popular and fun. The Whiz Khalifa event at the Dispensary in Phuket went hand in hand with his performances in Thailand—with cannabis and popular culture blending together seamlessly and naturally. There is an increase in interest in consumption of cannabis without combustion—CBD gummies are now available in some normal retail outlets—and responsible edible makers (like Baked and Blessed) are making products for the elderly and sick. In fact, as alluded to above, most of the “public” opponents of cannabis were fictitious—products of ignorance and poor imagination—not even smart enough to use AI. We are now in an era where cannabis consumption is normal and personal. People have 99 problems in their lives, but cannabis is not one of them. 

Lastly, while 2024 may have cemented the status quo—it was in many ways challenging and cruel to our growers. The undue stress of the re-criminalization question kept many growers in the dark, afraid of investing more into their craft, or worse without available and promised capital to help keep their businesses afloat. Others just could not compete—especially less experienced growers facing the ever-rising level of quality of cannabis in Thailand. Almost all growers are struggling to sell their buds at reasonable prices these days—and growers who can’t match quality are quickly facing the harsh reality of extinction. Many are already gone.

We experienced these lessons of 2024 with our own UpperCut project. We followed the lives and grows of 10 of the best farms in Thailand. Experiencing their ups and downs—successes and failures—and contributing our own failures (both internally and to our growers). We have begun the editing process of UpperCut for YouTube and are now reliving 2024 as we go through our thousands of hours of video. It was indeed a year of survival—UpperCut is a competition amongst the best growers while they concurrently face their own demons. Not all made it. And that is really what our community constantly goes through—a constant fight for survival. From surviving threats to the law—to economic pressure—to just being able to grow and compete in a clean and safe manner. Congrats to all who made it and survived 2024—2025 is upon us with new challenges.

UpperCut 2024 Final first at NNH, later at PHC

Please, do follow our HighThailand YouTube channel! We look forward to bringing you all the lessons of 2024 as well the new challenges, opportunities and experiences we will experience together in 2025 through all our social media platforms!