CBD in Thailand: The Law, the Limits, and the Local Brands
How CBD Took Off in Thailand
When Thailand pulled cannabis off its narcotics list in June 2022, the fastest-moving corner of the new market was not flower. It was CBD. Within a few months, dropper bottles, gummies, capsules, and skin care were on dispensary shelves across Bangkok, and a small group of Thai brands built their whole identity around cannabidiol rather than THC.
Thailand had allowed medical cannabis before 2022, but that program was narrow and mostly experimental. The full delisting is what created room for a consumer CBD market. What follows is the part people actually ask us about at the counter: what the law allows, where the THC lines are drawn, and who is making the products you see locally.
CBD and THC Are Not the Same Compound
CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of the two cannabinoids people talk about most. The other is THC. The practical difference is intoxication: THC is the compound that gets a person high, and CBD does not. That single distinction is why regulators treat the two very differently.
CBD is either drawn from hemp or isolated in a lab. Internationally, it entered the medical conversation in part because health authorities abroad, including the U.S. FDA, approved a single purified CBD medicine for a few rare childhood seizure disorders such as Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. That regulatory history is the reason CBD tends to be handled under medical and herbal rules rather than narcotics rules, in Thailand and elsewhere. We go deeper on the compound itself in our piece on what CBD actually is.
What Thai Law Actually Says About CBD
CBD is legal in Thailand, but “legal” comes with hard numbers and several overlapping laws. The thresholds matter more than the marketing.
The THC ceilings. Any cannabis or hemp extract above 0.2% THC by weight is still classed as a narcotic. Consumer CBD products sit under a tighter bar: the THC content has to be 0.1% or less, and the CBD extract is expected to reach 99% purity. A product that crosses those lines stops being a legal CBD item and becomes a controlled substance.
The acts that govern it. There is no single “CBD law.” Depending on what the product is, it can fall under the Narcotics Act, the Drugs Act, the Herbal Products Act, the Cosmetics Act, or the Medical Device Act. A CBD tincture, a CBD supplement, and a CBD face cream can each answer to a different regulator.
Licensing. Production, sale, and import each need their own permits, and the permit depends on the product category. The practical result is a short list: the number of fully licensed CBD manufacturers in Thailand stays small. Several are private companies, and some sit with government bodies or universities that hold a stake in cannabis research.
Testing and certification. Licensed CBD products are not waved through. Health-facing items have to be lab-tested and certified before they can be sold, which is another reason the licensed manufacturer list stays short.
The 2024 Hemp Act Proposals
Through 2024, the government floated a set of reforms, often discussed as a Hemp Act or cannabis control bill, that pointed toward tighter control rather than looser. None of it landed as a clean, final rulebook, and the details kept moving, but the direction held steady. The main proposals included:
- Cannabis would stay a controlled herb rather than return to the narcotics list outright.
- Personal cultivation, hemp included, would face stricter limits aimed at curbing unregulated growing.
- Existing dispensaries could keep operating, but proposals would restrict the sale and on-site smoking of cannabis flower.
- Under one version, dispensaries would be allowed to sell cannabis oils only at 0.2% THC or less.
- The framing leaned toward medical use, with tighter handling of recreational use and a stated goal of preventing substance abuse.
- Whether people could smoke at home for personal use was left open and flagged for public consultation.
For anyone reading the market, the takeaway is simple. The 0.2% extract line and the medical-first posture have been the stable parts. The rules around flower and personal use have been the moving parts.
How CBD Is Extracted and Sourced
CBD has to come out of the plant somehow, and the method shapes the final product. CO2 extraction is common because it pulls cannabinoids cleanly without leaving solvent behind. Some makers infuse CBD into a carrier like coconut oil instead, a long-standing way to carry fat-soluble plant compounds.
Terpenes come up a lot in CBD marketing. They are the aromatic compounds that give each hemp and cannabis variety its smell, and some producers isolate specific terpenes and add them back after extraction so the finished oil carries a particular profile.
On the input side, much of the local CBD is marketed as organic and non-GMO. The reasoning is straightforward: hemp grown without chemical pesticides or herbicides avoids the risk of those residues ending up in an extract, and non-GMO genetics keep the plant closer to its natural form. Since licensed products have to pass testing anyway, sourcing and cultivation are where a lot of the quality story actually sits.
Who Operates in the Local Market
A handful of Thai brands ended up defining the local CBD shelf. Here is a plain rundown of who they are and what formats they make. It is not a ranking.
DiiP. The brand most people will have seen, and the easiest to find across Bangkok dispensaries. DiiP is a Thai company that makes CBD in several formats: dropper bottles, sachets, gummies, and supplement capsules. It grew out of its founders’ own experience with mental health and the limits they saw in conventional treatment. DiiP sources hemp from its own site, Good Neighbors Farm in Khao Yai, which has a GMP-compliant extraction lab on location, and it is one of the few licensed CBD manufacturers in the country.
Seya. A Thai brand focused entirely on CBD oil extracts. Seya isolates specific terpenes and reintroduces them into its oils, and it lab-tests its products before sale. The company points to roughly two decades of medical cannabis experience behind its formulations.
Auracl. A Thai brand whose distinguishing feature is its extraction method. It carries CBD in coconut oil rather than a more standard carrier, drawing on a familiar way to extract and hold fat-soluble plant compounds.
Sundara. A Thai brand that markets a full-spectrum extract, meaning the product is made to retain a fuller range of the plant’s compounds rather than CBD alone. Sundara says its products are organic and locally sourced, and it sells oils and gummies, including a peppermint version for people who do not like the taste of plain oil.
Talk It Through With Our Staff
Siam Green Cannabis Co runs five branches across Bangkok and Koh Samui: Phrom Phong, Silom, Nana, Chinatown, and Chaweng. The rules shift, the product categories overlap, and the THC and licensing lines are easy to misread on a label.
Bring your questions to the counter. Our staff can explain how CBD is regulated here, what separates a legal CBD product from a controlled one, and how the local brands differ. Find your nearest of the five branches and ask in person. A lot of the people who walk in are sorting out the law and the local market first, and that conversation is the part of the job we do best.
References/links:
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1439/cannabidiol-cbd
https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/featured-topics/CBD.html
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cbd-oil-benefits#bottom-line
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/cannabidiol-cbd-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-2018082414476
https://www.eirhealth.com/is-cbd-legal-in-thailand
https://www.mondaq.com/cannabis-hemp/1214890/cannabis-and-hemp-business-guide-thailand
https://www.tilleke.com/media/2021/03/Tilleke-Cannabis-and-Hemp-Business-Guide-Thailand.pdf