Talk:Thai stick

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Page scope

The page treats the Thai stick as a product: seedless flower tops tied to a stick, made in north-east Thailand for export from the late 1960s and suppressed in the 1980s, with its names (including the Buddha stick of New Zealand and Australia), its construction, how it was made, the export trade by post, air, land and sea, its suppression, the end of the stick form, Thai seed in breeding abroad, and the use of the English name for Thai plants since 2019. Cannabis in Thailand and Laos generally is treated at Thailand, Northeastern Thailand and Laos; seedless growing at Sinsemilla; the Lao and Thai landrace accessions on their own pages.

Data verification

Record source conflicts, dating problems and sources not used here. Keep narrative content on the article.

Discussion

Sources

Maguire and Ritter, Thai Stick (Columbia University Press, November 2013), is cited from Google Books search-inside results, not from the whole book. Page numbers are the printed page labels those results give, and every quotation from the book on the page appears in a returned passage. The book is built on interviews with smugglers, brokers and law-enforcement agents, so its statements are attributed to the authors or to the person they quote. A paperback followed in June 2015.
Chouvy (2019) and Martin (1975) are cited from their full texts.
United States, Canadian and United Nations documents (the NNICC estimates for 1984 onwards, State Department narcotics reports, the DEA's Drugs of Abuse of 1988 and price survey, the 1978 congressional study mission, the 1979 Coast Guard hearings, the Department of Transportation report for 1980, the Marine Corps history) are cited from the NCJRS and GovInfo scans; the OCR was checked against the page where it mattered. The DEA's 1987 price chart is taken from the page image, because its text layer interleaves the three columns. Pinpoints are printed pages.
HathiTrust scans. The DEA magazine Drug Enforcement (the issue of July 1979, which is the 1979 revision of Drugs of Abuse, and the issue of Fall 1983), the NNICC estimates for 1980 and 1983, the DEA's special report of February 1985 on the United States and Canada and its history of 2003, the hearing records of 1971 (Senate, military drug abuse), 1978 (Senate, "mother ships") and 1982 (House, drug enforcement in South-East Asia), the report of the 1973 study mission, the National Institute on Drug Abuse's terminology guide of 1982, the JPRS Translations on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs for June and July 1977 and New Zealand News for September 1975 are cited from HathiTrust's full-view scans. The 1978 table of vessel seizures and the 1980 list of major seizures are taken from the page images, because their text layers interleave the columns. Each JPRS item was assigned to its issue number and date through the issue title pages in the bound volume.
The CIA electronic reading room. The Vice President's speech of 17 June 1983, the National Intelligence Council memorandum of 29 August 1983 on the meeting of the NNBIS coordinating committee, the Narcotics Review of 1 August 1986 (a sanitized copy, with passages withheld) and JPRS report L/10477 of 22 April 1982 are cited from the OCR text on each record page.
Newspapers through the JPRS. The page uses The Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Saturday Citizen, the Toronto Saturday Globe and Mail, the Bangkok Morning Express and Nation Review and the Indonesian Merdeka as the JPRS reproduced them: the English-language papers in their own words, Merdeka in the JPRS's English translation. Each item is attributed to its newspaper and cited to the JPRS issue.
The Marine Corps history prints its author's name on the title page as read by the scan as "Sous"; the GovInfo catalogue entry gives Gary D. Solis.
Court opinions are cited from the Caselaw Access Project's case files and, for Garrett v. United States, in the United States Reports. What the page reports from them is each court's account of the facts, including what indictments and plea memoranda alleged; in United States v. Kimball the defendant later repudiated the plea memorandum's facts, so the page attributes the 42-ton load to the memorandum.
The Bulletin on Narcotics articles are cited from the UNODC web edition, which prints each article's page range but no page numbers; they are cited without pinpoints. The web edition's wording differs slightly from the printed issues in places (Suwanwela and Poshyachinda: "Vietnam" in the web edition, "Viet Nam" in print; Yodmani 1983: "northeastern", printed "north-eastern"). The page quotes the web edition it cites.
Abstracts only: Kroll (1975), ElSohly and colleagues (2000) and Tipparat and colleagues (2012) were reached only as abstracts. The page reports only what the abstracts say.
Newbold (1997) is cited from the Kanagawa University repository copy; the 1983 royal commission report in the copy on the Governor-General's website; Jiggens (2004) in the QUT repository copy.
Thai-language sources (Thai PBS, Matichon, Thansettakij, the Department of Medical Sciences releases, the Department of Agriculture notice of July 2021, the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine journal) are in Thai. The Ministry of Public Health notification of 8 February 2022 is cited from the copy on the Thai FDA's cannabis information site.
The Cannabis Act is cited from the Royal Gazette scan (vol. 52, part ก, pp. 339–343, 5 May B.E. 2478): title page, preamble and sections 1 to 11. The scan has no text layer, so the Thai is taken from the page images.
The 1979 Narcotics Act is cited from the unofficial English translation in the UNODC legislation database.

Where the sources disagree

What the stick was. Bamboo in Fielding's account (as quoted by Maguire and Ritter), in the Laboratory of the Government Chemist's description, the Mounted Police estimate for 1982, the DEA's Drugs of Abuse (1979 and 1988), The Vancouver Sun (1977) and the California courts; "a small hemp stick" in Maguire and Ritter's own description; "the stem of the plant" in Chouvy (2019); bundles "that resemble sticks" in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's guide of 1982. All are on the page.
The size of the sticks in People v. Russell. The California Court of Appeal (1980) gave the sticks as four to six inches long and about three-quarters of an inch across, citing Drug Enforcement of July 1979. That issue describes Thai sticks as buds "bound onto short sections of bamboo", beside a photograph captioned "Bundle of Thai Sticks", and its text gives no dimensions. The Vancouver Sun (1977) gives four to five inches; Fielding, an eight-inch sliver. The page reports each length as its source's.
Opium and oil. Both opinions in the Wisconsin case put opium in their definition of a Thai stick: "laced with opium" in the majority, "mixed with opium gum" in a footnote to the dissent. Both then say what the sticks in that case contained: the majority that they "were not laced with opium, but contained only marijuana and hashish", the dissent's footnote that they "consisted of compressed marijuana and hashish". Neither opinion says how that was established. A newspaper column reprinted in the Congressional Record (1977) says "opium-coated"; the report of the 1973 study mission speaks of marijuana "laced with opium" smuggled from Thailand to American military installations, without saying what form it took; Green's Dictionary of Slang defines the sticks as soaked in hashish oil; the Marine Corps history describes marijuana "soaked in water". None of the other sources tested a stick. All are on the page, attributed.
The 1977 column's author. The Delegate from Guam who had it printed calls it a column by Jack Anderson and Les Whitten; the byline printed above it in the Record reads "Charles Rodrigues". The page names neither.
How common Thai sticks were in the United States. The DEA's Drugs of Abuse called them "encountered infrequently on the U.S. illicit market" in 1979 and again in 1988; the acting head of the DEA told a House subcommittee in December 1982 that Southeast Asian marijuana had "not been a significant factor" in the American supply; the NNICC estimate for 1983 put Thailand with seven other countries at about five per cent of the American supply between them, but wrote that Thai marijuana "frequently appears" in the United States as Thai sticks. Against these, the Coast Guard's table gives 10,185 pounds of Thai sticks seized in 1976 and 17,130 pounds in 1977, single seizures of 12,000 pounds are recorded for 1980, and the NNBIS coordinating committee was told of 34,000 pounds seized between 10 June and 25 August 1983. All are on the page, attributed.
Seizures that may be the same. The Coast Guard's table gives 4,500 pounds of Thai sticks for 1978, and the Senate hearing's table of vessel seizures lists 4,500 pounds at Barnes Island on 23 October 1978. Garrett v. United States has 12,000 pounds of marijuana imported at Neah Bay on 26 August 1980; the NNICC estimate for 1980 lists 12,000 pounds of Thai sticks found adrift off Neah Bay on 27 August 1980; the Department of Transportation counts over 12,000 pounds of Thai sticks among the Coast Guard's seizures in the 1980 fiscal year. No source says that the figures in either group describe one seizure, and the page gives them without joining them.
Chilliwack, May 1977. The Canadian Press report in the Saturday Citizen puts the septic tank on farmland "40 miles south" of Chilliwack and the value at more than $30 million; The Vancouver Sun puts it on "the five-acre farm in Chilliwack", in the Columbia valley near the border, and the value at $25 million to $30 million. The page says "near Chilliwack" and gives no value.
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 1986: a growing season from late August to March or April; in 1990: the main crop planted in late autumn and harvested in December to February, with a second crop in April and May. The NNICC report for 1992: two crops, the first harvested in December and January. The page gives the first three accounts it uses, attributed.
Terrence Clark's release from prison. Newbold: February 1974. The royal commission: 8 July 1974. The page says 1974.
Who "Mr Asia" was. Newbold calls the title "wrongly attributed to Marty Johnstone"; the royal commission calls Johnstone "the so-called 'Mr Asia'". The page speaks only of the syndicate later known by the name.
Riley's cargo. Jiggens gives the total as 4.5 tonnes in two places but splits it differently: 2.8 tonnes on the Anoa and 1.7 tonnes on the hulk at Polkington Reef (p. 161), or about 2.6 tonnes loaded onto the Anoa and 1.9 tonnes later recovered from the wreck (p. 180), where he also calls the original cargo "estimated at five tonnes". The page gives the total.
Coast Guard seizures in 1979. A member's statement in the House (Congressional Record, 13 May 1980) says the Coast Guard seized 251 pounds of Thai sticks in 1979; the Coast Guard's own table, supplied during the 1979 hearings, has 0 for 1979, a year then only a few months old. The page uses the table for 1976 to 1978 and gives no figure for 1979.
The first cannabis law. English-language studies (Kalayasiri and Boonthae; Ritmontree and colleagues; Tanguay 2024) date the Cannabis Act to 1934, and a review in the journal of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine dates it to B.E. 2477. The act's own text, in the Royal Gazette scan, is titled the Cannabis Act, B.E. 2477, records that it was enacted on 26 April B.E. 2478 (1935), and was published on 5 May B.E. 2478 (1935); section 2 brings it into force ninety days after publication. It cites an announcement by the Speaker of the House dated 7 March B.E. 2477; before 1941 the Thai year began on 1 April, so that date is March 1935. The page gives the English-language studies' year, attributed, and the act's own dates. The UNODC translation of the 1979 Act lists a "Marijuana Act, B.E. 2486" among the laws it repealed but, in its transitional clause, names "the Marijuana Act, B.E. 2477"; the Gazette text does not say which year the repeal list meant.
When medical use became legal. Sommano and colleagues (2022): 2018. Thai PBS, reproducing the Royal Gazette text: the Narcotics Act (No. 7) B.E. 2562, published on 18 February 2019. Kalayasiri and Boonthae also give 2019. The page gives February 2019.
The chemistry of Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan. The Department of Agriculture notice gives the registered line roughly equal THC and CBD; a 2023 analysis of flower sold under the name found 7.29 to 12.70 per cent THC and much less CBD; a 2025 genome study found the cultivar close to a CBD-dominant cultivar. All three are on the page.
First use of the name. Dictionary.com dates the term's first recorded use to 1975–80; Green's earliest dated citation is 1976; Maguire and Ritter cite a newspaper headline of April 1974; the Marine Corps history (written in 1989) uses the term for 1972–73. All but the last are on the page as dated attestations; the Marine Corps history is cited for what it describes, not for the date of the word.
The Thai government's eradication figures fall from more than 3,000 hectares in 1986 to 250 in 1987 and about 150 in 1989 (NNICC 1985–86 and 1987; State Department 1990). The reports give them without comment; the page gives the 1985 and 1986 figures.

Not used

The 1980 House statement on Coast Guard seizures in 1979 (see above).
Seed-company histories of Thai and Lao cannabis and of the stick (The Real Seed Company, Kwik Seeds). They are on the accession pages, attributed; they add nothing checkable here.
Marsh (2014), a personal memoir in M/C Journal that recalls "Sumatran" buddha sticks: one person's recollection of the product's supposed origin.
A 1991 New York Times article reprinted in the Congressional Record, which lists Thai sticks among the marijuana of 1979: a retrospective.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2004 list of street names, which includes "Thai sticks".
The United States Customs Service's Narcotic Identification Manual (1988): its description of Thai sticks repeats the DEA's.
The report of a congressional study mission to South-East Asia of December 1974 to January 1975, which mentions "buddha sticks" only to say that there was "no evidence" of them in Korea.
A General Accounting Office report of 1988 on drug control (GAO/NSIAD-88-94): only its catalogue page could be reached.
Later official reports (NNICC 1989, 1990 and 1993; the State Department's reports of 1995 and 2005 and the Cambodian section of its 1999 report; the International Narcotics Control Board for 1988): read; they repeat or extend the trends the cited reports give.
Collins English Dictionary: its entry could not be reached and is not cited.

Open items

Sources not yet read: Maguire and Ritter in full; the NNICC estimates for 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982; the early Potency Monitoring Project reports; the Thai Narcotics Control Board's annual reports; Thai newspapers of the 1970s beyond the items the JPRS translated.
Thai names. No source read gives a Thai or Lao name for the stick before the 2022 gloss kancha siap mai in Matichon. A Thai-language source from the trade years would settle whether growers had a name of their own.

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 (Production and suppression in Thailand), a map to be drawn: 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.