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Thai Cannabis Industry is Clouded by the Emergence Of Legal Threats

(CTN News) – Cannabis-related enterprises are already transforming Thailand’s urban landscape months after it became the first Asian nation to legalize marijuana.
From Bangkok to Chiang Mai, neon-lit signage with cannabis plants is increasingly everywhere, and the substance is contaminating everything from food to beverages to cosmetics, encouraged by the prospect of money from marijuana tourism.
Thailand’s cannabis sector is treading a fine line in terms of politics despite its fast expansion.
Due to a legislative gap created when the substance was decriminalized before legislators could agree on how to manage the sector, businesses today operate in a grey area.
Growing social worries over legalization’s effects also pose a danger to the sector, which is predicted to reach a value of $1 billion by 2025.
“Now, all of this is political. The coalition parties now want to turn back after the government has gone so far, according to Rattapon Sanrak, the leader of a cannabis advocacy organization that owns and operates Highland Cafe, a dispensary in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao district.
“Re-criminalizing it will drive everything underground, and businesspeople that want to do it correctly wouldn’t be able to,” the entrepreneur said.
As early as next week, lawmakers are anticipated to pick up discussing a draught cannabis law intended to give the government greater authority over the sector.
After numerous lawmakers decided to remove the legislation from consideration in September because it did not go far enough in outlawing recreational usage, the legislation stagnated.
Although the draught bill didn’t expressly forbid recreational smoking, it stated that smoking in public places would be illegal; the government has repeatedly stated since June that decriminalization was intended to target medical and commercial use of marijuana rather than recreational use.
Other regulations include those against emitting offensive odours in public, selling to unborn babies or children, and commercial advertising.
Cannabis consumers and business owners are afraid that they face a struggle against politicians who want to reverse legalization with the aid of civil society organizations because of the legal ambiguities.
This week, a network of students, parents and teachers contributed to the demands for cannabis to once again be classified as a narcotic by signing a petition with more than 15,000 signatures. Several academics and medical professionals have made this request.
The companies affected by Hong Kong’s CBD product ban face ruin. Calls for a crackdown on drugs and firearms have also increased in response to a fatal shooting at a preschool in October by a former officer with drug connections.
The main opposition Pheu Thai party has used the shooting to intensify its anti-drug rhetoric in front of an election that will be held in March, even though most Thais do not associate it with cannabis policy.
Supporters of cannabis claim that legalization has given communities devastated by Covid prohibitions, which have decimated Thailand’s tourism-dependent economy, a lifeline.
To promote locations where visitors may visit organic cannabis farms and get cannabis oil massages, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has promoted cannabis use as a tourism experience.
According to information from the Public Health Ministry, more than 1 million individuals have already received permits to cultivate marijuana using the government’s mobile phone application since June 9.
It’s clear how this will benefit tourism. More than a dozen dispensaries are now housed in a “cannabis complex” on Bangkok’s Khaosan Road, a popular destination for travellers, where customers can purchase not just buds but also edibles, tea bags, massage oils, and handcrafted bongs.
The co-owner of Joint Us, one of the stores in the Plantopia Weed City complex, Worawut Ngamthanawit, said that although tourism is already a significant industry in Thailand, marijuana also adds value to other companies.
Since it opened in September, the modest dispensary has never been short of clients, according to Worawut, as travellers peruse Khaosan Road in quest of the newest exotic Thai strain to sample.
How Thailand is Setting the Pace for Gay Rights and Marijuana Legalization
This month on a Wednesday night, Justin George, a 42-year-old tourist from Canada, took a 30-minute Tuk Tuk journey to the business after receiving advice from a Twitch live broadcaster. He had just arrived in Bangkok, and this was his third visit to a clinic that day.
“I travelled to Thailand for it, after all. George stated, “I’d intended to come earlier, but I wasn’t coming until marijuana was legalized.
I use cannabis to deal with severe back pain. “I don’t spend thousands of dollars if I can’t smoke pot there.”
Soranut Masayavanich, the proprietor of the dispensary Sukhumweed, described how cannabis helped his company and even the neighbourhood’s fortunes, which were both about 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) away on a busy street in the commercial Sukhumvit district.
His business is surrounded by eateries serving rice dishes, boat noodles, dim sum, and rows of shophouses occupied by street food sellers.
“Cannabis has aided in people’s re-emergence. Cash is pouring into the nation. Thailand hasn’t been this energized in a while, according to Soranut.
“Every restaurant in the area is doing well. Because of the influx of people we’ve brought here, the community is thriving.
Chainat Rodsukho, a restaurant owner whose cooked-to-order rice shop is close to Sukhumweed, claimed that the dispensary had energized the area after many nearby businesses suffered during Covid.
They didn’t cause us any issues, and their clients are extremely polite—far from what I had anticipated—he said. Some of the clients eventually became my clients as well.
Anutin Charnvirakul, the Health Minister, is depicted as a cartoon character on the packaging of Sukhumweed’s hemp oil-infused lip balm in a playful nod to the man who led the cannabis liberalization movement as one of his Bhumjaithai party’s election-year campaign promises.
Sukhumweed obtains all of its cannabis from local growers. Anutin has called opposition to legalizing marijuana political posturing and vowed that his party wouldn’t budge from its core principle.
“As written, the draught legislation is complete and capable of preventing abuses.
Anutin called the policy a “river of no return” and said those opposed to it have political motivations and only want to hurt the standing of the political party that proposed it.
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Indian Police Blame Rats for Eating 500 Kilograms Of Seized Cannabis

News
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.
According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.
Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.
Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.
Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.
To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.
Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.
Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

Pixa Bay
Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding
On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.
TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.
When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.
And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.
Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.
A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.
Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.
But today, it feels more like reality.
Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.
SOURCE | CNN
News
2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Washington — Trump Media, The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.
The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.
The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.
The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.
Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.
Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.
The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case
That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.
The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.
SOURCE | AP
News
The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.
The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.
Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.
This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.
In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.
The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.
This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.
The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.
In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.
According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.
Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.
The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.
For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.
Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.
As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.
As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.
The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.
SOURCE: AP
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