Thailand Cannabis and Hemp Act 2026: A Live Tracker for Exporters and Licensed Buyers
Where the Law Stands Right Now
LAST UPDATED: JULY 18, 2026
The Thailand Cannabis and Hemp Act 2026 draft has not passed. Ministerial regulations — not the Act — govern Thai cannabis today, and the table below tracks every instrument that matters to licensed buyers and exporters.
| Instrument | Status | Key dates |
|---|---|---|
| Recriminalization notification (flower = “controlled herb”, medical-only, PT33 prescriptions) | In force | Published June 25, 2025; in force June 26, 2025 |
| Ministerial regulation on cannabis & hemp extracts (Category 5) | In force | Published March 26, 2026; effective April 26, 2026 |
| Ministerial Regulation No. 2 on flower (premises, storage, personnel) | In force | Published April 30, 2026; effective on publication (one firm reads the standard next-day rule as May 1) |
| DTAM penalty guidelines (suspension & revocation) | In force | Issued June 22, 2026 |
| Cannabis and Hemp Act (Public Health Ministry draft) | Not passed | Hearings closed July 1, 2026; to the Minister by July 24; Parliament January 2027 at the earliest |
Thailand is regulating cannabis through ministerial regulations while the Act waits. If you are a licensed buyer, plan against the Thailand cannabis regulations already in force in 2026, not the draft.
Timeline: June 2025 Recriminalization to Today
| Date | What changed in practice |
|---|---|
| June 25–27, 2025 | Recreational use ends: the Ministry of Public Health reclassifies flower as a controlled herb (published June 25, in force June 26); from June 27 any dispensing above 0.2% THC requires a PT33 medical prescription. |
| January 2026 | The retail market shrinks by roughly 40%: 7,297 of 18,433 licensed cannabis establishments do not renew their licences (count at December 28, 2025), leaving roughly 11,100 retail establishments operating. |
| March 26, 2026 | The extract regulation is published in the Royal Gazette, giving operators 30 days before tighter licensing takes effect. |
| April 26, 2026 | Extract regulation in force: permitted purposes narrow to four, and high-THC extract licences close to foreign-majority companies. |
| April 30, 2026 | Flower Regulation No. 2 is published and, on most firms’ reading, takes effect the same day: export, sale and processing licences now demand qualifying premises, dedicated storage and DTAM-trained staff. |
| June 17, 2026 | Customs hardens: unlicensed import or export of cannabis buds is now formally charged under Section 244 of the Customs Act — up to 10 years’ imprisonment and/or a 500,000-baht fine, replacing confiscation without charge. |
| June 22, 2026 | DTAM issues penalty guidelines: 30-day licence suspensions for minor breaches, 90 days for serious ones such as no-prescription sales or unreported exports, and immediate revocation for repeat or severe offences. |
| July 1, 2026 | Second-phase public hearings on the draft Cannabis and Hemp Act close, with more than 1,600 responses filed. |
| July 7, 2026 | The Public Health Minister confirms the draft did not reach parliamentary deliberation this session and orders “source to destination” oversight after fake-licence and illegal-export cases; licences now issue electronically only. |
| July 9–16, 2026 | The legislative field gets crowded: a rival, stricter bill is filed in Parliament, the House Public Health Committee starts its own companion draft — and signals the earliest parliamentary consideration is January 2027. |
The Two April 2026 Ministerial Regulations, Explained
Extract regulation (effective April 26): Thai-majority ownership for high-THC licences
The extract regulation narrows what cannabis and hemp extracts above 0.2% THC may lawfully be used for — medical use, medical and scientific research, industrial use, and government narcotics-suppression work — and restricts who may hold high-THC extract licences: Thai juristic persons not classified as foreign under the Foreign Business Act, government agencies, and the Thai Red Cross Society. Foreign-majority companies are effectively excluded from holding these licences. This regulation governs extracts, not flower — but it signals the direction of travel: purpose-limited licensing, Thai-controlled ownership, and tighter control of the supply chain.
Flower regulation (published April 30, effective on publication): premises, storage and DTAM-trained staff
Ministerial Regulation No. 2 raises the bar for flower export, sale and processing licences. Applicants must show lawful ownership or possessory rights over their premises (with written owner consent if leased), dedicated storage that preserves product quality, qualified medical, pharmaceutical or cultivation personnel, odor and smoke elimination systems, and at least one DTAM-trained staff member present throughout operating hours. Each requirement translates into a due-diligence question a buyer can ask today — starting with the simplest: who is your DTAM-trained officer, and can you show the premises and storage documentation behind your licence? A GACP-certified cannabis supplier in Thailand will already hold documented answers to all of these.
New DTAM penalty guidelines: suspension and revocation risk
Since June 22, 2026, the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine applies published penalty guidelines: 30-day suspensions for minor breaches such as record-keeping and licence-display failures, 90-day suspensions for serious ones — including selling without a prescription and unreported exports — and immediate revocation for repeat or severe violations. For buyers, the practical consequence is that a non-compliant supplier can now lose its licence mid-contract. Supplier compliance history has become a supply-continuity issue, not a formality.
Thailand Cannabis Licence Expiry: The December 31, 2026 Cliff
The extract regulation’s transition clause gives Category 5 licences issued under the prior 2020 hemp and 2021 cannabis regulations a hard sunset: they remain valid only until December 31, 2026, and renewal means full re-qualification under the 2026 framework — including the Thai-ownership test. Consultancy estimates (DeeMED) put re-qualification at roughly four to six months with documentation in order. The arithmetic is unforgiving: an operator that had not started re-qualifying by mid-2026 is at real risk of a licence gap in early 2027. Dispensary and controlled-herb licences run on their own renewal schedules — a further 4,587 expire during 2026 and 5,210 in 2027 — so the operator pool will keep shrinking either way.
The certified core is already small. As of February 13, 2026, DTAM counted just 217 GACP-certified farms against more than 11,800 licensed operators — under 2% hold the minimum certification the export pathway assumes, up from around 149 farms in late 2025. Understanding what GACP certification actually requires explains why the number is so low.
Buyer checklist for any Thai supplier:
1. Current licence type and its expiry date — and whether it sits under the pre-2026 framework facing the December 31 sunset.
2. Re-qualification status under the April 2026 rules, including the named DTAM-trained officer.
3. GACP certificate validity, with per-batch certificates of analysis to match.
Cannabis and Hemp Act Thailand: Status of the Draft and What It Says
The Public Health Ministry’s draft would put Thailand’s medical-only policy into primary legislation. Its known direction, claim by claim:
Cannabis outlets would operate as medical facilities, with doctors supervising dispensing — a requirement that already applies in part under amended ministerial regulations in force today.
The supply chain would come under source-to-destination controls, and registered outlets would be listed publicly with GPS-pinned locations.
New operators would be limited to hospitals, pharmacies and licensed herbal-product shops, and police and local officials would gain enforcement powers equivalent to health officials.
A crackdown is already under way on more than 6,000 shops operating illegally or on expired licences.
Where the bill stands: second-phase public hearings closed on July 1, 2026, drawing more than 1,600 responses. DTAM is revising the draft with a further 15-day feedback round and intends to deliver it to the Public Health Minister by July 24, after which it goes to Cabinet.
The field is no longer a one-bill race: a rival, stricter bill was filed in Parliament on July 9, and the House Public Health Committee is drafting its own companion bill — with parliamentary consideration expected in January 2027 at the earliest.
No passage date exists. Anyone quoting one is guessing. This section will be rewritten the day the bill moves — that is what this tracker is for.
What This Means for Licensed Buyers of Thai Flower
Every move above points the same way: Thailand is dismantling the recreational market while deliberately preserving the licensed medical and export channel. Enforcement now cuts hard against the informal route — unlicensed bud exports are charged under Section 244 of the Customs Act with penalties up to 10 years, and authorities cite roughly 56 tonnes seized in fiscal 2026, with the UK and the Netherlands as the top illicit destinations. The only durable way to move Thai flower across a border is with a Thailand cannabis export licence issued under the 2026 framework.
Demand-side fundamentals are intact. Germany imported 201 tonnes of medical cannabis in 2025 (+176% year on year) and 50.5 tonnes in Q1 2026 — our guide to how Thai GACP flower reaches German pharmacies covers the full picture, including the §4 MedCanG licence, §72 AMG import licence and per-shipment §12 MedCanG permits, plus release against the European Pharmacopoeia Cannabis flower monograph — a chain Thai rule changes do not touch — along with the regulatory watch items on the German side.
A note on price signals: Thailand’s domestic oversupply has pushed some local wholesale offers far below export-grade levels. That surplus cannot enter the export channel — without GACP certification and a valid export licence it has no legal route across the border — so domestic pricing tells you nothing about import-grade sourcing. For the certified market, see our published Thailand cannabis wholesale prices for 2026, and our overview of what licensed buyers need to purchase cannabis wholesale in Thailand.
What Stays True for GACP-Certified Export
Every new requirement in the 2026 framework — lawful premises, dedicated storage, qualified personnel, trained staff, traceability — is a subset of what dual certification already demands. Solar Farm holds Thai GACP and SGS-audited EU-GACP certification, runs in-house HPLC potency testing with a certificate of analysis for every batch, and operates 22 flowering rooms across 5,800 m² of indoor facility whose SOPs — from air-locks to visitor management — you can inspect in our room-by-room compliance walkthrough. We have supplied a licensed German buyer under partnership since 2025. The documentation the new rules demand is documentation we already maintain daily. Tightening rules shrink the pool of certified exporters; they do not shrink the export market.
How and When We Update This Tracker
The “Last updated” date at the top changes with every revision, and each change is logged below. We review this page monthly and update it within 48 hours of any Royal Gazette publication, Cabinet or parliamentary action on the Act, or DTAM guideline change.
If you are a licensed buyer or importer doing diligence on Thai supply, we will walk you through our licence, certification and re-qualification status directly — contact our export team.
Changelog
July 18, 2026 — Tracker launched: status table and timeline through the July 16 House committee developments; April regulations and DTAM penalty guidelines summarised; December 31, 2026 licence sunset analysis; Customs Act Section 244 export-penalty note added.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the Thailand Cannabis and Hemp Act 2026 passed?
No. As of July 2026 the Public Health Ministry’s draft has not passed: second-phase public hearings closed on July 1, the revised draft is due with the Minister by July 24 before going to Cabinet, and parliamentary consideration is expected in January 2027 at the earliest. Thailand governs cannabis through ministerial regulations in the meantime — see the status table above.
Is cannabis still legal in Thailand in 2026?
Medical-only. Recreational use was recriminalized in late June 2025; flower is a controlled herb requiring a PT33 prescription, and roughly 7,300 of 18,400 licensed cannabis establishments did not renew their licences (count at December 28, 2025), leaving about 11,100 operating. Licensed cultivation, sale and export continue under the tightened April 2026 regulations — our medical cannabis Thailand guide covers the full legal framework.
What happens to Thai cannabis licences on December 31, 2026?
Category 5 licences issued under the prior 2020/2021 regulations expire on December 31, 2026, and holders must fully re-qualify under the 2026 framework — premises ownership, dedicated storage, qualified personnel and DTAM-trained staff. Consultancy estimates put re-qualification at four to six months, so buyers should confirm a supplier’s re-qualification status now, not in Q4. Dispensary licences expire separately on their own schedules.
Can foreign-owned companies hold Thai cannabis licences under the new rules?
For high-THC extracts, no — since April 26, 2026 those licences are restricted to Thai-majority entities under the Foreign Business Act, government agencies and the Thai Red Cross. Flower is regulated separately: foreign buyers purchase from licensed Thai suppliers rather than holding Thai licences themselves, which is why supplier verification matters.
Can Thailand still export medical cannabis to Germany and the EU in 2026?
Yes — export by licensed, GACP-certified operators is the channel Thai policy preserves, while unlicensed export is now a customs crime carrying up to 10 years. The German side is unchanged: a §4 MedCanG licence, §72 AMG import licence and per-shipment §12 MedCanG import permits, with flower released against the European Pharmacopoeia Cannabis flower monograph, typically through an EU-GMP processing partner. Germany imported 201 tonnes in 2025 and 50.5 tonnes in Q1 2026, so demand is not the constraint — certified supply is.
What should licensed buyers verify with a Thai cannabis supplier in 2026?
Three things: the supplier’s current licence type and expiry against the December 31, 2026 sunset; re-qualification progress under the April 2026 framework, including the named DTAM-trained officer; and GACP certification with per-batch certificates of analysis — only 217 of Thailand’s 11,800+ licensed operators held GACP certification as of February 2026.