Cookies opened its first Asian franchise on January 21 with billowing cannabis smoke, a Buddhist monk’s blessings, Muay Thai boxing, and ceremonial drumming within sight of the American embassy.
The razzmatazz included someone wielding a hand-held, long-barreled “leaf blower” pumping bountiful cannabis smoke into eager mouths among hundreds of Thais and foreigners waiting for hours in the warm winter sunlight.
The celebrations blurred the financial risk Cookies this Southeast Asian country faces in Thailand’s rapidly changing and deceptive cannabis market and political arena.
Legalization could be snuffed out if anti-cannabis opposition politicians win elections for parliament and prime minister, the former expected in May and the premier vote thereafter.
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