Talk:Northeastern Thailand
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Northeastern Thailand treats north-east Thailand (Isan) as a cannabis growing region: its physical setting, climate and people as they bear on the crop, the use of cannabis there, the history of cultivation from the first herbarium sheets through the export trade of the 1970s and 1980s and its suppression to the registered cultivars after 2019, and the genetics, chemistry and conservation of the region's named types. The Thai stick as a product and its export trade are treated at Thai stick; the Phu Phan range at Phu Phan.
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Record source conflicts, dating problems and sources not used here. Keep narrative content on the article.
Discussion
Sources
- Shared with Thai stick. Maguire and Ritter (2013), Chouvy (2019), Martin (1975), the Bulletin on Narcotics articles (Fort 1965, Yodmani 1983 and 1992, Stamler and colleagues 1985, Suwanwela and Poshyachinda 1986), the American intelligence estimates and State Department reports, the CIA Narcotics Review of 1986, the JPRS translations of 1977 and the Thai-language sources (Matichon, Thansettakij, the Department of Medical Sciences releases, the Department of Agriculture notice of July 2021) are cited with the same definitions and pinpoints as on that page, where the copy each is cited from is set out.
- The Department of Agriculture notice (July 2021) is cited in Thai: pages 2 and 3 and the table on page 7 for Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan ST1, pages 12 and 13 for Hang Suea Sakon Nakhon TT1. Translations of its descriptions are the page's own.
- Herbarium sheets. The labels of the five Forest Herbarium sheets from Loei and Nakhon Ratchasima are transcribed from the sheet images the herbarium publishes. The Flora of Thailand labels file Nakhon Ratchasima under their eastern ("E") floristic region; the page gives the province.
- Geography and people. Keyes, Isan: Regionalism in Northeastern Thailand (1967), is cited from the Cornell eCommons scan, whose text layer is imperfect; quotations follow the scan's page images. The two United States Geological Survey papers (1958, 1969), Choenkwan and colleagues (2014), Nawata and colleagues (2005), Chenrai and colleagues (2022) and Timsuksai and Rambo (2016) are cited from their full texts; Grandstaff and colleagues (2008) from its abstract.
- Genetics and chemistry. Kamoltham and colleagues (2025), Charoenchai and colleagues (2023), Pongnaratorn and colleagues (2025), Nakkliang and colleagues (2023), Kraisittipanit and colleagues (2025), Srikul and colleagues (2026) and Watanakul and colleagues (2024) are cited from their full texts. Monton and colleagues (2023, Phytochemistry Letters) and Sunanta and colleagues (2024) could not be read and are not used.
- Aranyanak (1991) is cited from the SPAFA Journal scan.
Where the sources disagree
- Where cannabis was grown before the export trade. Fort (1965) found use "particularly in the north-east"; Martin (1975) wrote that cultivation in Thailand was hardly more widespread than in Laos or Cambodia, "except perhaps in the north and in a few central regions". The page gives Fort and the later police and intelligence reports, which place the commercial crop in the north-east.
- The season. A broker quoted by Maguire and Ritter: planting near the end of the rainy season. The Mounted Police estimate for 1982: planting at the onset of the rains in May, harvest from December. The State Department in 1990: the main crop planted in late autumn and harvested from December to February, with a second crop in April and May. All three are on the page, attributed.
- The rainy season. Choenkwan and colleagues (2014) give May to September; the 1958 USGS paper, May to October; Nawata and colleagues (2005), from early or mid April to late October or early November. The page gives the first.
- The region's area. Keyes (1967): 170,226 km²; the 1969 USGS paper: about 170,000 km² for north-east Thailand; the 1958 USGS paper: 155,000 km² for the Khorat Plateau alone; Chenrai and colleagues (2022): 200,000 km² for the geological plateau, which extends into Laos. The page gives about 170,000 km² for the region.
- The chemotype of Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan. Its registration gives THC and CBD in about equal amounts; Kamoltham and colleagues (2025) call the cultivar recognised for high THC; Charoenchai and colleagues (2023) found samples claimed to be the cultivar high in THC and low in CBD. All are on the page.
- The Phu Phan range. The registration notice places it in Sakon Nakhon and Kalasin; Pongnaratorn and colleagues (2025) say it lies mainly in Sakon Nakhon with parts in Kalasin.
- Kraisittipanit and colleagues (2025). The similarity figures name "Sakon Nakhon Hang Krarok Phu Phan", "Hang Krarok Kiew" and "Hang Krarok", which do not appear under those names in the paper's sample table. The page quotes the names as the paper prints them.
Not used
- Kamoltham and colleagues (2025) cite Woods and colleagues (2022) and Dal Martello and colleagues (2024) for Thailand's "diverse landraces adapted to ecological gradients". Neither paper says this of Thailand: Dal Martello and colleagues mention Thailand once, for hemp among textile fragments at Ban Don Ta Phet in central Thailand. The statement is not used.
- Newspaper statements that Sakon Nakhon or the Phu Phan range is the origin of the Thai stick (Prachatai English, January 2018; Siamrath, August 2019, reporting remarks at an industry meeting) are claims about history in news reports and are not used.
- A 2009 MGR Online report of a police raid on a cannabis field in a Phu Phan valley is not used; the 2019 survey covers the same area.
Images reserved in the article
One image has a place in the article but is not yet uploaded. It is reserved until the file exists:
File:Cannabis-Thai-stick-producing-region-map.jpg(Geography), a map to be drawn, the same map reserved on Thai stick: north-east Thailand and the Lao bank of the Mekong, with the provinces of Nakhon Phanom, Sakon Nakhon, Nong Khai, Udon Thani and Kalasin, the Phu Phan range, Vientiane, Bangkok, Pattaya and the Gulf of Thailand, and arrows for the overland carriage to Bangkok and the coast.