Cannabis in Chiang Mai: A First-Timer's Guide

If this is your first time buying cannabis in Thailand, the process is different from what you might expect and different from what most online guides describe. Here is the whole thing in order.

Step one, understand the rule

Since 26 June 2025, cannabis flower in Thailand is a controlled herb. You need a PT 33 prescription from a licensed practitioner to buy or hold it.

This applies to visitors. It is not enforced selectively against foreigners; it is simply the rule now. Plenty of shops will sell without asking, which tells you those shops are operating outside their licence conditions.

Step two, get the prescription

A licensed practitioner runs a consultation, around thirty minutes. Bring your physical passport. They will ask what you are looking for and about relevant medical history.

If it is appropriate, they issue the PT 33, which names what you may buy and in what quantity.

Most people who arrange it ahead are done the same afternoon. The full detail is on our prescription page. Ask a dispensary you trust to point you at a practitioner; a good one will do it whether or not you buy from them.

Step three, find a licensed shop

The licence must be displayed at the front of the premises. It is a physical document with a red Garuda seal.

Beyond that, a quick read of a shop:

• Can they tell you where it was grown?
• Is it stored in sealed glass, out of direct light?
• Will they let you smell it?
• Do they ask about your experience before recommending?
• Will they admit a batch is average?

Three shops in half an hour is realistic in Nimman and the variation will surprise you. More on that here.

Step four, buy sensibly

Start smaller than you think. Especially if you have not consumed in a while. Thai cannabis is not uniformly strong, but a change of country, heat, jet lag and unfamiliar surroundings all amplify the experience.

Be careful with edibles. They take 30 to 90 minutes and hit harder than smoking. More visitors have a rough night this way than any other. The detail.

Ask what a dose is. Any decent shop will talk you down rather than up.

Where you can consume

In private. Your own accommodation if they allow it, and plenty do not, so check rather than assume. A guesthouse smoking fee is an unpleasant surprise.

Not in public. Public consumption is a nuisance offence with a fine attached. Not the street, not a temple, obviously not a temple, not a park, not the back of a songthaew.

Not in the shop. Thai law prohibits consumption on dispensary premises unless a licensed practitioner administers it.

The things that actually cause problems

Scooters. By some distance the biggest risk to visitors in Chiang Mai, before cannabis enters the conversation. Do not ride affected. Grab is cheap.

Airports. Do not travel with it, in either direction, domestic or international. A Thai prescription has no force at a border and people get caught at Chiang Mai airport regularly. Finish it or leave it.

Temples. Chiang Mai has hundreds and they are active places of worship. Not the setting.

Assuming 2023 rules. Most of what is written online about cannabis in Thailand predates June 2025 and is wrong now.

A note on etiquette

Thailand legalised this partly on the argument that cannabis is part of Thai traditional medicine and Thai agriculture. There is real history behind it, going back long before the 1935 ban. Visitors who treat Chiang Mai as a novelty destination for getting wrecked are, fairly directly, the reason the rules tightened.

Be a bit thoughtful about it and everyone gets to keep this.

Come and ask

We are on Nimman Soi 11, open every day 11:00 to 22:00. If you want to ask something before you come, message us. We answer questions from people who never buy anything, which is fine by us.