One of Pattaya’s most popular legal outlets, promoting marijuana for medical purposes and as a food and drink additive, is sponsoring the Little Walking Street in Jomtien. Old Weed Man was the first new business to open on Walking Street during the depths of the recession and has expanded. It is now promoting a new commercial venture where cafes and bars can market the legalization of cannabis. The proposed Little Walking Street site on Jomtien Beach Road is currently derelict pending commercial interest.
Pattaya’s Walking Street, which dates back to the 1960s, is the most famous pedestrian precinct in the resort, although vehicles are allowed through from time to time. It has many imitators at home and abroad, including Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh and Pub Street in Siem Reap, although the Cambodian variants are tame compared with the Thai original’s sexy heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. Both Beijing and Glasgow, like Bangkok, have walking streets but they cater for visitors more interested in shopping than stripping.
The role of ganja in future Pattaya tourism is yet to fully unfold. Although the government has accepted that adults smoking pot privately at home won’t be prosecuted, public use will be outlawed under the cannabis legislation now proceeding through parliament. The flower of the cannabis plant which gives smokers the THC “high” psychoactive chemical has recently and hurriedly been classified as a controlled herb.
Business and political sources agitating for reform say that the future of Pattaya as a tourist mecca would be best assured by governmental endorsement of cannabis sandboxes for public smoking and by the arrival of casinos within entertainment complexes. This is a debate which will heat up following the next general election due in Thailand in the first quarter of next year. But many argue that the train speeding towards the legalization of recreational cannabis is now unstoppable.
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