Western Thailand
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| Western Thailand | |
|---|---|
| ActiveCannabis last recorded here in 2025 | |
| |
| A lake among mountains at Kaeng Krachan, Phetchaburi | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 14.660000, 99.150000 |
| Gene Pool | Tenasserim Gene Pool |
| Regional Complex | Malay Peninsula |
| Country | Thailand |
| Provinces/States | Tak Province,Kanchanaburi Province,Ratchaburi Province,Phetchaburi Province,Prachuap Khiri Khan Province |
| Area | 54,800 km² |
| Climate | Tropical savanna |
| Primary Mountains | Tenasserim Hills |
| Growing history | |
| Dated accessions | 2025 |
| Dated news reports | 2013–2018 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Western Thailand is a cannabis growing region in Thailand, along the border with Myanmar and the Tenasserim Hills. It takes in the provinces of Tak, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi, Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan. Northern Thailand lies to the north, Central Thailand to the east and Southern Thailand to the south. The Sangkhlaburi, Si Sawat and Bang Saphan growing areas lie within it.
Hmong farmers in Phop Phra District of Tak grow hemp for fibre. In 2021 and 2022, 326 of them were registered as hemp growers.[1] In Si Sawat District a Karen villager has described cannabis sown among the upland rice since his grandparents' time.[2] Community enterprises in Kanchanaburi have grown cannabis for medicine under licence since 2021.[3]
Geography
In Tak, Hmong farmers grow hemp in Khiri Rat subdistrict of Phop Phra.[1] A Kasetsart University collection of hemp seed, gathered from sites known for growing fibre and textile hemp, includes accessions from Mae Sot, Mae Ramat, Phop Phra and Wang Chao districts.[4][5] The region's seed accessions come from Kroeng Krawia in Sangkhlaburi District of Kanchanaburi, at 200 m near the Myanmar border, and from Bang Saphan in Prachuap Khiri Khan. Licensed medical growers in Kanchanaburi include enterprises in Mueang Kanchanaburi and Phanom Thuan districts.[3][6]
Cultivation history
The Tenasserim frontier in the 1890s
Across the border from Prachuap Khiri Khan lie the Tanintharyi and Bokpyin townships of Myanmar's Tanintharyi Region, within the Mergui growing area. H. G. Batten, Deputy Commissioner of Mergui, told the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–94 that Siamese settlers had formerly grown hemp for smoking in parts of the Tenasserim township and in "the Lenya and Maliwun township". Batten had come to the district in 1890 and took the account from a police officer who had served in the district since 1861, mostly on the Siamese frontier. After the prohibition in Lower Burma, the officer said, "the growing of hemp on our side of the frontier practically ceased"; on the Siamese side it went on "to a certain extent, but not to the same extent as before", discouraged by Siamese officials, the Raja of Renong above all.[7] Renong, today's Ranong, lies in Southern Thailand.
Hmong hemp in Tak
Hmong farmers in Thailand have long grown hemp, notably in Khiri Rat, where the Hmong came from Omkoi District, in Chiang Mai, in 1943.[1] Phop Phra was the one district of Tak among the 15 districts in six provinces opened to hemp under a ministerial regulation approved by the Cabinet in 2016.[8] From 1 January 2018 government agencies could apply to grow hemp there, using varieties with no more than 1 per cent THC by dry weight.[9] From February 2021 to June 2022, 326 Hmong farmers were registered as hemp growers with the Phop Phra district agricultural office.[1] At Ban Pa Kha Mai, in Khiri Rat, a group formed in 2020 brought together 25 people who grow the plant, prepare the fibre and weave.[10]
Seed collected at Tha Sai Luat and Mae Sot, in Mae Sot District, had the highest 100-seed weight among the 37 hemp accessions of the Kasetsart collection that were grown out and compared.[5]
Karen growers
The Karen villager from Si Sawat District spoke to the author of a book on cannabis in Thailand, in an excerpt published by Bangkok Biz News in 2021. The Karen of his village, he said, had sown cannabis with their upland rice in the rainy season to keep pests off the rice, and went on doing so after the plant was made illegal, in secret and in far smaller numbers. He named three varieties: chang phueak ("white elephant"), foi thong ("golden threads") and kan yao ("long stem").[2]
In February 2013 police and the Border Patrol Police found 100 rai of opium poppies, interplanted with cannabis, on forest land cleared in the Mae Sam Muen reserve of Mae Ramat District, Tak, and the adjoining Omkoi reserve in Chiang Mai. A police commander said that financiers had hired Hmong and Karen people to plant and tend the fields.[11]
Seed accessions
In March 2025 a seed accession of a landrace general population was collected at Kroeng Krawia from one Sangkhlaburi grower's plots, from the 2024 crop. A second accession from Kroeng Krawia dates from 2021 and a 2021 line called Tanaosri 'Red Star comes from Phetchaburi. Bang Saphan 'Lemon was collected in Prachuap Khiri Khan in April 2025.
Licensed growing
Eight community enterprises in Kanchanaburi licensed to grow medical cannabis harvested their first lot, 200 kilograms of flowers, on 1 November 2021. The pilot centre was the health-tourism farming enterprise of Ban Wang Yen, in Wang Yen subdistrict of Mueang Kanchanaburi.[3] In April 2022 an enterprise at Ban Phanom Thuan planted 2,000 plants in the district's first closed greenhouse for medical cannabis.[6] In Bang Saphan Noi District a community enterprise at Chang Raek had applied for a licence to grow medical cannabis and was building a fenced greenhouse in April 2021.[12] Chulalongkorn University announced in June 2021 that its cannabis plantation project was in Kui Buri District, Prachuap Khiri Khan.[13]
Enforcement
In May 2013 the head of Kaeng Krachan National Park led park rangers, soldiers and police by helicopter to 16 sites in the forest along the border with Myanmar in Phetchaburi, where trees had been felled and land opened for field crops mixed with cannabis.[14] In October 2018 officers in Nong Ya Plong District of Phetchaburi uprooted about 300 kg of cannabis, 1 to 2 m tall, from about 3 ngan of cleared forest.[15] The same month officials, soldiers and police in Si Sawat District cut down 140 cannabis plants on a hilltop.[16] In October 2020 police at Mae Sot said that 360 kg of cannabis seized from two Myanmar nationals, who were taking it into Myanmar, had come from north-eastern Thailand.[17]
Growing Areas
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Growing area | Province | Collected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZOM-THA-001-0020210003 | Tanaosri 'Red Star' General Population 2021 | |||
| ZOM-THA-001-0020210004 | Kroeng Krawia General Population 2021 | Sangkhlaburi | ||
| ZOM-THA-SOU-0420250001 | Bang Saphan 'Lemon' General Population 2025 | Bang Saphan | Prachuap Khiri Khan | |
| ZOM-THA-WES-0420250001 | Kroeng Krawia General Population 2024 | Sangkhlaburi | Kanchanaburi |
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Phrommatham, Sunthorn; Rungkawat, Nakarate; Kruekum, Phutthisun; Palapanya, Piya; Poung-ngamchuen, Jukkaphong (2026). "ปัจจัยที่มีผลต่อการผลิตกัญชงของเกษตรกรชาวม้ง ในตำบลคีรีราษฎร์ อำเภอพบพระ จังหวัดตาก" [Factors affecting hemp production of Hmong farmers in Khiri Rat Sub-district, Phop Phra District, Tak Province]. Maejo Journal of Agricultural Production (in ไทย). 8 (3): 186–196.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 นิพัทธ์พร เพ็งแก้ว (18 February 2021). "'กัญชา'กับคนไทยกะเหรี่ยง" [Cannabis and the Thai Karen]. Bangkok Biz News (in ไทย). Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "8 วิสาหกิจชุมชน เก็บช่อดอกกัญชาทางการแพทย์ 200 กก. ลอตแรกของกาญจนบุรี" [Eight community enterprises harvest Kanchanaburi's first 200 kg lot of medical cannabis flowers]. Thairath (in ไทย). 1 November 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Aksonsit, Kanjanabhorn; Samipak, Sompid; Chaisan, Tanapon; Pluempanupat, Wanchai; Juntawong, Piyada (2025). "Genetic Diversity of Hemp Germplasm in Northern Thailand". Applied Science and Engineering Progress. 18 (4) 7841. doi:10.14416/j.asep.2025.07.003.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chaisan, Tanapon; Thobunluepop, Pitipong; Thongthip, Nanthika; Rakpenthai, Apidet; Puangsin, Buapan; Samipak, Sompid; Pluempanupat, Wanchai (2025). "Identification of morphological traits affecting high seed yield potential from new hemp germplasm collected in Thailand". Chilean Journal of Agricultural Research. 85 (1): 88–97. doi:10.4067/s0718-58392025000100088.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "ชาวนาพนมทวนพลิกวิกฤติ เปลี่ยนนาข้าวเป็น "นากัญชา" เพื่อการแพทย์" [Phanom Thuan rice farmers turn crisis around, changing rice fields into medical cannabis fields]. Thairath (in ไทย). 11 April 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). "Evidence of Mr. H. G. Batten, Deputy Commissioner, Mergui". Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94. Vol. VII: Evidence of Witnesses from Bombay, Sind, Berar, Ajmere, Coorg, Baluchistan, and Burma. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Burma witness no. 11, pp. 384–385 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ จตุพร พ่วงทอง (26 January 2018). "ป.ป.ส.พาตะลุยแปลง "กัญชง" – ชมวิถีชุมชนม้ง ชีวิตยึดโยง ใยกัญชง ตั้งแต่เกิด-จนตาย" [The narcotics board tours the hemp plots: a Hmong community bound to hemp fibre from birth to death]. Matichon (in ไทย). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Thamnukasetchai, Piyanuch; Aksorndej, Kornkamol (13 December 2017). "Govt hemp farms start operations on January 1". The Nation. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Wongwilairat, Sirinee; Punture, Walailak (January–June 2024). "การพัฒนาผลิตภัณฑ์จากกัญชง: กรณีศึกษากลุ่มวิสาหกิจชุมชนกัญชง อำเภอพบพระ จังหวัดตาก" [Development of hemp products: a case study of the hemp community enterprise group in Phop Phra District, Tak Province]. วารสารการจัดการและพัฒนาท้องถิ่น มหาวิทยาลัยราชภัฏพิบูลสงคราม (in ไทย). 4 (1).
- ↑ "ผงะ ไร่ฝิ่นกลางป่าแม่ระมาด ผืนใหญ่สุด 100ไร่ ปลูกกัญชาแซม" [Largest opium field, 100 rai, found in Mae Ramat forest with cannabis interplanted]. TeeNee.com (in ไทย). 22 February 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2026 – via Matichon.
- ↑ กองบรรณาธิการ (15 April 2021). "ตามรอยวิสาหกิจไร่กัญชา ก้าวกันไปถึงไหนแล้ว" [Following the cannabis-farm enterprises: how far have they come?]. Thairath (in ไทย). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Chulalongkorn University (27 June 2021). "Chula Taps into Medical Cannabis and Expands the Product Line" (Press release). Retrieved 19 October 2026 – via Newswise.
- ↑ "ป่าต้นน้ำเขื่อนแก่งกระจานถูกบุกรุก16จุด" [Kaeng Krachan Dam watershed forest encroached at 16 sites]. Sanook News (in ไทย). 1 May 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ "โค่นไร่กัญชา 3 งาน กลางป่าหนองหญ้าปล้อง เพชรบุรี" [Three ngan of cannabis felled in the forest of Nong Ya Plong, Phetchaburi]. Matichon (in ไทย). 8 October 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ "ดับฝันสายเขียว!ปราบเหี้ยนกัญชา บนยอดเขา" [Green dreams dashed: cannabis wiped out on a hilltop]. Thai Post (in ไทย). 1 October 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ "Thai police catch Myanmar nationals trafficking marijuana". Eleven Media Group. 8 October 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2026.