Thailand Re-imagines Medical Cannabis by Featuring Workshops in Thai Traditional Medicine
Holistic Health – Holistic High: A Slogan For the Future of Medical Cannabis in Thailand
How to buy a ticket for the 2nd Phuket Cannabis Cup?
How to buy a ticket for the official after-party?
The theme of this year’s Annual Phuket Cannabis Cup shows organizers have pinpointed the central pain point in the state of play in the confounding evolution of Thailand’s legalization regime.
The slogan of 2nd Phuket Cannabis Cup, Holistic Health – Holistic High, reflects the positive direction that smart cannabis is moving to accommodate coming regulations, unknown as they may be in their specifics. It is the general tenor that the government has made clear, and the industry is jockeying to respond.
The word is out that medical cannabis is in, recreational cannabis is out and no one knows what medical cannabis amounts to. What we do know is no one is happy with the degree to which dispensaries have taken over cityscapes and the neighborhoods of Phuket. There are thousands; some with overbearing signage that can be disturbing.
It’s just too much. Add that to the bind the new prime minister is in, after his party campaigned with an anti-cannabis message, and it begins to appear inevitable for the new leader to look like he is doing something.
Therefore, this year’s Cup will be more intentional, as well as twice as long with 5X the crowd. Last year’s Phuket Cannabis Cup was attended by more than could be accommodated at a convention center so this year it will go on for two days in a space of 10,000 meters.
I think the industry will create a new aesthetic, a new “meta-branding” of cannabis in Thailand – away from stoner stereotypes and 70s-style montages of hippies wasted beyond words — toward an expansive medical motif that emphasizes the healing effects and wellness impacts of cannabis on those who use it consciously.
I can think of no better example to explain what I have in mind than the 2nd Annual Phuket Cannabis Cup at the Blue Tree Water Park on December 1st and 2nd, with Yoga, Thai traditional massage, consumption lounges for adults, play areas for the kids and water for your dog.
There is such an abundance of musical, cultural, artistic, athletic, therapeutic, medicinal and culinary happenings, that describing them all could fill up a few pages. (You can hear my talk with the organizer, Thames of the Phuket Cannabis Association, here,) One of the takeaways from the vast diversity of things to see and do this year is that lots of activities that you might not think of as medical can be considered just that; if undertaken consciously, there are everyday activities that virtually guarantee a decrease in your stress levels which translates to increases in your well-being, allowing you to take one more step away from sickness and ill-health.
So it is with cannabis: In the quest for well-being, the line between medical and non-medical will often blur.
As if to drive this point home, the Cannabis Cup will put on workshops that show how cannabis is used as a medicinal herb in Thai Traditional Medicine and talk about the history of this medical approach stretching back for over 1,000 years.
Thai Traditional Medicine: Making Cannabis Tinctures and Remedies That Go Back A Thousand Years.
To understand this less restrictive concept of medicine, it is helpful to consider how illness is thought of within Thai Traditional Medicine. The Buddha himself said that all sickness stems from stress. Thai traditional medicine can be seen as an organized and documented enterprise to cope with stress by restoring the individual to his or her healthy balance.
The most common Thai traditional herbs are lemongrass, ginger root, kaffir lime, turmeric, galangal, basil, and camphor. (You can learn more about Thai traditional herbs here.) Thai traditional medical doctors work on the assumption that the body is formed from the combination of the four elements of Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire. Therapies are developed to restore balance within these systems.
It is hard not to notice how well this outlook resonates with a preoccupation with the human endocannabinoid system, a system that was not even discovered in Western medicine until 1988.
At the Cannabis Cup workshops, you can learn some simple techniques for making medical-grade tinctures and discuss the impacts that Traditional Thai medicine expects from smoking cannabis, as well as including it in a broader therapy with other herbs and activities.
The Phuket Cannabis Cup and The Rise of A New Kind of Medical Cannabis
In reaching back into a tradition that was demonized and forced to remove cannabis from its list of remedies and finding insights into human well-being that have only recently been discovered by Western medicine, Thailand is positioned to fuse traditional wisdom about cannabis with the latest empirical research.
These connections are not lost on the organizers of the Phuket Cannabis Cup, whose primary purpose is to educate everyone interested in becoming a conscious cannabis consumer.
The workshops and the traditional cannabis meds are only the beginning of the story of how the Cannabis Cup seeks to educate and enrich the lives of everyone who participates. The competition itself is first and foremost an educational tool to deepen our understanding of the plant and our relation to it.
When, where, and what time is the Phuket Cannabis Cup
Location: Blue Tree Phuket
Date: 1st & 2nd December, 2023
Time: 03:00 PM to midnight
Competitions that will take place in the 2nd Phuket Cannabis Cup:
- The Standard Award
- The Opens Award
- Greenhouse & Sungrow Award
- Thai Genetics Award
- People’s Choice Award
- Beauty Trimming Award
- Fastest Joint Rolling Award
Note for visitors:
- Restricted to individuals aged 20 and above, children must be accompanied by parents or guardians.
- Smoking outside the designated area is strictly prohibited, and violators will incur a fine of 5000 THB.
- Smoking is only permitted within the designated smoking zone.
- Bringing Cannabis and food and beverages (F&B) into the premises is strictly prohibited.
- Possession of weapons and drugs is strictly prohibited.
- Guests are encouraged to bring cash and open minds.
Activities:
- Live podcast stream with Carl K. Linn by Cannabox
- Alternative medicines
- Massage
- Family & pet friendly
- Art & culture
- Well-being
- Sustainability living
- Music
- Cannabis business matching
- 7 divisions of the 2nd Phuket cannabis
About Carl K Linn
I’m Carl K Linn and I have over 20 years of experience as a writing consultant. In the past, I provided content solutions for thought leaders in personal investing (Registered Investment Advisers & Wealth Managers) in the US. Since 2019, I’ve been in Thailand writing about cannabis and working with international business leaders in the global cannabis industry.