Thailand made history in June 2022 after becoming the first country in Asia to allow for adult-use cannabis sales, cultivation and use. As the country continues to steadily tread into uncharted waters, an American tourist and cannabis entrepreneur took it upon himself to create a smoky spectacle in Phuket, Thailand to promote his products.
The tourist, who was identified by police as Angkhan Vorac Chhieng, filled up a fog machine with cannabis and blasted Bangla Walking Street in Patong Beach, a popular tourist destination, on Aug. 18 around 2:30 a.m., Phuket Provincial Police said. The street is located in a beach resort town in Phuket and is known for its nightlife and, more recently, handful of cannabis dispensaries.
The move was reportedly meant to promote the tourist’s cannabis business, Kush Life, located in California.
Video of the incident shows the tourist standing in a crowded street as passersby take turns stepping into the cloud of cannabis and others stand to the side. He can be seen walking up the street and continuously blowing smoke into the air and around bystanders, as smoke settles in the air around and behind him. A number of pedestrians were also recording the incident on their cell phones.
After receiving initial reports of the incident, police used surveillance cameras to track Chhieng down and were able to locate him at a hotel in Bangla Walking Street. After confronting the cannabis professional, police had told Chhieng that these actions weren’t allowed in public.
Chhieng apologized, saying that he was acting unknowingly creating content to promote his brand overseas and didn’t think the action was inappropriate. (Bear in mind that even in California and throughout the U.S., blasting cannabis smoke throughout a public street isn’t legal.) He also apologized for any harm he caused to Phuket’s tourism reputation and departed the country on Aug. 19, according to the police Facebook post.
The suspect had traveled to Thailand on Aug. 15, evidently to promote the Kush Life brand with The Lavender Boys, a cannabis-inspired lifestyle clothing brand. Chhieng had traveled to Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, before making it to Phuket, according to police.
However, according to Insider, Chhieng denied that he was the one blasting smoke onto the street and that he was not in possession of a fog machine. He also claimed that there was “never any marijuana in the fog machine.”
“We didn’t go all the way to Thailand to make an impact on the news. We love the people and the culture. I was born there, I just wanted to do something good together with other people in the cannabis community,” Chhieng told the publication.
While recreational cannabis is legal in Thailand, and the location where the incident occurred has plentiful cannabis dispensaries, smoking cannabis in public is still not allowed. Those who use cannabis publicly can be charged under Thailand’s public nuisance law and may be punished with a fine of $780 or three months in jail. According to Bloomberg, Thai authorities are already pushing to tighten cannabis-related regulations.
The country’s recent move to legalize cannabis has brought in a slew of tourists from other Asian countries as well, given that many other neighboring nations treat cannabis possession and use much more harshly. Other Asian countries have warned tourists against trying cannabis in Thailand, and both China and Japan have warned that their laws on cannabis use may apply to its nationals even when they are abroad.
While there are a number of questions in regard to how the government chooses to regulate the market and how businesses adapt, recent reports are showing that Thailand’s cannabis industry is likely to continue growing and flourishing, especially when it comes to an increase in tourism.
