High on Thailand: The Global Expansion - Branding Bud Live Episode 18
THE SUMMARY
Have you heard? Cannabis is legal in Thailand. With over 900 dispensaries and cannabis-related shops just in Bangkok alone, David Paleschuck, the co-host of Branding Bud Live and founder of Branding Bud Consulting Group, has decided to take it on the road to learn more. Within just 8 months cannabis has exploded in Thailand.
THE CO-HOSTS
David Paleschuck, Adriana Hemans
THE TRANSCRIPT
David Paleschuck
Welcome to Branding Bud Live, the live stream that’s 100% THC and 0% WTF. Every week we speak with business people about the business of cannabis. I’m David Paleschuck, founder of Branding Bud Consulting Group and author of the first book on cannabis branding. I’m joined by my co-host Adriana Hemans, a Marketing executive with over 8 years in the cannabis space. Hi Adriana!
Adriana Hemans
Hi David. Thank you for that intro. I’m so excited to co-host the show with you. We’re bringing amazing guests from across the cannabis ecosystem to share their perspectives. What makes our show unique is that we focus on building a community - and we encourage audience participation. It’s not just about us talking, it’s about all of us building something together. So feel free to drop your questions and/or opinions in the chat, and we’ll share them too.
David Paleschuck
Thank you, Adriana. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Have you heard? Cannabis is legal in Thailand, with over 900 dispensaries and cannabis-related shops just in Bangkok alone. Within just 8 months cannabis has exploded in Thailand. Once heavily frowned upon and severely penalized, it still has its nay-sayers. Legal for medical and culinary use, some of the questions we’ll be specifically discussing are:
What’s Thailand’s relationship with cannabis?
What products are being sold, where, and in what doses?
What restraints if any, are there on sales, distribution & consumption?
I’ve traveled to Thailand this week to see for myself what’s going on here. It’s now 2a BKK time. I’m excited to share my findings with you!
Adriana Hemans
You're a sight for sore eyes.
David Paleschuck
And I have sore eyes, too!
Adriana Hemans
So tell us what time is it in Thailand right now?
David Paleschuck
Right now it's 2:01am.
Adriana Hemans
Wow, it's Thank you. Thank you for staying up till we can be here on LinkedIn chatting with our friends.
David Paleschuck
Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm going out right after this. What are you kidding me?
Adriana Hemans
Oh, nice. I always knew that you were hardcore like that. I want to say hi to Dennis, thank you for introducing yourself and I see some other folks rolling into. So please feel free to hop in the chat and tell us where you're from. Say hi. Any other random things you might want to talk about? Have you ever been to Thailand before? Let's start there. Don't be shy. This chat. For us all.
David Paleschuck
Dennis is from child prior cannabis shop. All right. Very nice. And I'm curious. Is that in Bangkok? And should I be visiting that tomorrow?
Adriana Hemans
Oh, yeah. What's on your agenda for tomorrow, David?
David Paleschuck
Oh, boy. I've got some really great things tomorrow. Tomorrow's Friday, I'm losing track of my days already. I am going to meet a cannabis lawyer tomorrow morning, who's very connected in the industry. He owns a website called Hi Thailand, which basically has lots of writings on what's going on in cannabis and lots of stories about the cultivators here and the dispensary shops. Then after that, I'm going to Siam green, which is one of the bigger dispensaries. They own the whole building. There are six floors. There's cultivation, there's a shop and then on top of that there's a consumption lounge being built out right now. So it's pretty cool. And then later in the afternoon, I'm going to form we will be checking out some price get in some old Landry strings. So there are a dull moment here.
Adriana Hemans
But David, I want to bring up you mentioned earlier you made a little friend on the trip over.
David Paleschuck
I did. Um, it was pretty amazing. I got on the airplane, and I was flying for almost a 12 hour flight from Seattle to Seoul, Korea. And as I was walking down the aisle, I happen to see somebody reading a book, and it was my book. And he said to him, I'm into cannabis. And he said I am, and I said, is that a good book? And he said it is it's really interesting. And I was like, that's awesome. And I asked him a few more questions and he got a little nervous. And I said by the way I wrote that book. So we hung out after. Throughout the flight for about an hour and soul before he connected to his flight and I connected to mine.
Adriana Hemans
Is he in the cannabis industry? Or he was just curious about cannabis branding?
David Paleschuck
Yeah, he's, he's actually in the events industry and wants to get in the cannabis industry. So he said he got on Amazon and he started looking for books about cannabis. And there weren't that many. So. So he picked my book. And there you go.
Adriana Hemans
That's such a cool story.
David Paleschuck
Yeah, it was. It was really rewarding. You know, it was cool to be on an on an international flight and see somebody reading my book. That was pretty cool.
Adriana Hemans
I have Gary fast who commented Mobius trimmers and cannabis processing machines I studied in Thailand in 1992. Gary, have you been back to Thailand since then? It'd be interesting to see all the changes since 92. Especially the big one. We're about to talk about loosening restrictions on cannabis, which has had a big impact.
David Paleschuck
Yeah, absolutely. Well, should we kick it off maybe, and put a highlight slide and just sort of cool. The one thing I do want to say just up front is, this is my third trip to Thailand. I've only been here now two days. So I'm in Bangkok, which Bangkok in itself is very different from the rest of Thailand. But I just wanted to throw out some highlights. And really just throw that caveat out that I'm only here the first two days and have a lot more to see and a lot more to do. So I don't feel like I have a full report. And kind I'm hoping some of the things I've seen, will be balanced out with some different things as well. But let's just go through the highlights really quickly. So Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalize cannabis by removing the plant from its narcotics list, just recently in June 2022. And I thought this was really interesting to turn and expects to see sales of $1 billion in 2022. And expected to grow to 24 million by 2026 $1 million is not a lot of a lot of revenue, when you think about all the activity that's taking place in this country. So I thought that was really, really low. Hopefully, hopefully, sales will be better than what they're predicting. The other thing I noticed, or I've been told in research is Thailand's Public Health Minister has been instrumental in driving cannabis decriminalization, and it's become a core component of his political party. So there really is a party that is focused on the decriminalization of cannabis here. There's an election coming up shortly, and things are bound to change. But with so many dispensaries in Bangkok, and throughout Thailand right now, I think those things won't change as much as people fear. But, but it's pretty amazing to see what's going on.
Adriana Hemans
Is there any concern that the election rolled back the decriminalization of cannabis that it would get reversed? Is that being that one of the options on the table with the election?
David Paleschuck
Well, some of the people have mentioned that, but you're so far down the path I just can't imagine. I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds of dispensaries throughout the country, perhaps 1000s throughout the country, so I don't I don't think they'll roll it back. There's lots of big business invested into cannabis right now. You know, here. So I don't think it will be rolled back. I do think there will be more rules and regulations, because right now, there aren't many rules or regulations. So I just think they'll pile on those rules and regulations just to basically straightening things out. It's pretty sloppy here. I going to admit. But I mean, for that matter, New York is pretty sloppy to know, we have plenty of states that are pretty sloppy in their rollout of cannabis programs.
Adriana Hemans
Yeah, I mean, it does seem like not because the rules don't exist in New York, but just because they haven't started following them yet because people haven't received although some have received their licenses, and some are open but there's a lot of people operating in a legal gray area right now.
David Paleschuck
And I think what's happening here is so many people rushed to get a license, and they opened up and there's no cap on the licenses here either, which is interesting. So it's pretty much a free for all
Adriana Hemans
There's no cap Upon licenses, you said, no, no. We have a question from Caleb's straight recreational or is it medical? Thanks for your question. That's a good question.
David Paleschuck
Yeah. Um, in Ron mentioned is no different than California. Yeah, I'm assuming that's California could be Canada. But yes, it is recreational. And there is medical as well. And medical came on before recreational. There's been a really, quite frankly, there's been a big push from over 800 doctors that have come together, you know, to push for rules and regulations to basically, you know, help both the medical side and, and the recreational side. But I think education is really high on the list here. There's some other highlights, too. Let's go to the next slide. Yeah. Thank you, Ron. I thought it was Callie, but never know what ca can be.
Adriana Hemans
Let me ask you something to David, is there? Are you seeing people like displaying their licenses in Windows? And are you seeing any unlicensed shops?
David Paleschuck
I haven't seen any licenses in Windows. But then again, I mean, I don't see any licenses in the dispensaries, certainly in Seattle. Or in Washington State. So no, I haven't seen any paperwork, if you will. But a couple other things. There's no cap on the ceiling, or the number of dispensary licenses here. I think that might be one of the things that they're looking to change. Many shops are funded by non-Thai entities, even though Thai ownership is mandated. So and we'll talk about this a little bit later, my first dispensary I went to was cookies. Earlier today. When I came out of cookies, I went to another shop called the joint. And I was speaking to two Thai people behind the counter. And there was there was a fellow that was sitting in the chair. And the more questions I asked, he kind of popped up and introduced himself as the owner in American originally from Seattle. So it's really interesting, you know, just to just to see, I guess some of the rules being fudged a little bit, if you will. You know, there's the consumption lounges here, too. And they're not yet legal. So I'll get into this briefly. But I went to the cookie store, and I had asked if I could smoke on my way back. And they said, No, you should definitely not smoke on the street. So when I went into the joint, which was the second dispensary I went to, what was interesting was, after I had made a purchase, they said, we have a lounge if you'd like to consume, but please don't consume outside. So I said, Okay, sure. And they took me up to a room on the third floor, which was basically an apartment in an apartment building. And we turned on the TV, and I was there alone. And the guy said, you know, call me if you need me. And so I found myself smoking by myself in this tiny apartment on the third floor for about a half hour before I said, Where the hell am I? What am I doing? Right? It's to get moving. So it was pretty funny. But I went down, and I thank them. And then I was on my way.
Adriana Hemans
So it was like some someone, someone lived there, and they were just like, hey, use our living room as a consumption lounge.
David Paleschuck
No, it was it was an apartment building. And in the dispensary was on the ground floor in a store unit. But then after we I made a purchase, they walked me into the building, we got into the elevator went up to the third floor, we opened an apartment. And it was set up like a smoke lounge. But essentially it was an apartment. Interesting. Yeah. And I think it's cool. You know, one thing I should also mention here is that while there are many consumption lounges, they're not yet legal. So I think that's just happening because they really don't want people smoking on the street. And they, they feel here, at least what I've gotten a feel here. That smoking on the street is disrespectful. So I've tried to it's strange, because every time I'm in New York, I always walked down this street smoking here, I just want to be respectful.
Adriana Hemans
It's not illegal, it's just sort of frowned upon.
David Paleschuck
Correct. I think if they really wanted to give you a hard time that could, but I think Thailand Bangkok is so chaotic that it would be pretty hard to stop somebody on the street, because we're here Tom, I'm curious, Dennis said we have a consumption lounge that's separate from the shop like a private club. And that seems to be what most people have. Dennis, we should connect. I mean, I'm in Bangkok for the week. Maybe? That's right, if we'd have and. And on soy cowboy, oh boy, that was a street. I was trying to avoid dentists. And, and just in 2020, almost 1.5 million prescriptions have been written. You know, so there's a real push, push from the, from the community, the medical community here. Yeah, and so I don't know, why don't we start off with cookies, I went to cookies. first thing this morning was the first spot that I went to. And we check that out for a minute. I took some pictures. And they just wanted to oh, sorry, we're not going to go to cookies. Right now we're going to do an audience participant. So let's start off for Yeah. It's funny, Dennis sort of jumped the gun on us to, uh, he had mentioned so we have a candidate truth. Is this true or false? There are approximately 400 dispensaries in Bangkok. Is that true or false? What does everybody think? It's your chance to shine.
Adriana Hemans
I think it's false.
David Paleschuck
I think it's false. Do you think it's more do you think it's less?
Adriana Hemans
I think it's way more.
David Paleschuck
You do. And Marco is back. Hi, Marco. He was just in Bangkok in December and the rooftop pool area. The hotel was a fine place to partake. I scooped that out last night, my friend and I couldn't get up there. Before midnight. So we went up there after. What's up, Marco?
Adriana Hemans
I want to invite next. Oh, by the way, David, I have to tell you, I went to this flower hire event last night. business and pleasure for Women's International Women's Day. And people kept asking me, oh, I didn't think I would see you here today. Why are you not in Thailand with him? And I was like, well, he didn't invite me maybe next time. Just kidding.
David Paleschuck
That's a great question. That's a great question. Adriana. Why aren't you here?
Adriana Hemans
I know. Missed opportunity.
David Paleschuck
Well, we'll get it next time. I'm sure I'm coming back. So everybody's saying false. But I'm curious to know, for all of those that have said false, would you mind just adding Do you think it's more do you think it's less than 400 dispensaries in Bangkok? And just to give everybody, you know, some sort of sense of how big Bangkok is. Official population is just over 10 million people in Bangkok. But I've been told that the unofficial is more like 14 million people. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So.
Adriana Hemans
I think LA is 8 million in New York is 12 million. Is that right? Is the New York one write?
David Paleschuck
Record? Sure. Yeah, I'm sure. You said 12. I don't know. Maybe, maybe even more than that. Yeah.
Adriana Hemans
If anyone knows the population of New York, New York City, drop it in the chat too.
David Paleschuck
look at it 29 million visitors per year? Yeah. So just to give you a sense, you know, there's 10 to 14 million folks here in Bangkok alone. And we spoke earlier about you know that there's really no limitations or no cap. So why don't we go to the to the next slide? And the answer is, the answer is false. There's over 900 dispensaries in Bangkok. Which is unbelievable. And let me just sort of convert that into like a US metric that I understand. So I live in Seattle, Washington State has 7.7 million people. And there's 400 approximately 460 dispensaries in the entire state. And now we're talking almost double that amount in one city. Granted, Bangkok is huge. But so we have 900 plus 10 million people in Bangkok. Washington state has 460 dispensaries with 7.7 million people. Oh, yep. So it's just they're everywhere. And we've got some photographs that we'll go through in a little bit and we'll take you through so you can start to get a sense of what these shops look.
Adriana Hemans
Like over 900 dispensaries and for some even more context in California we have just over 900 dispensaries with a population of 39 million. So yeah, like we should probably have more support that much of a population there's obviously a lot of areas where you can't find what you need but it's just interesting how something has filled the need of a large or feel the need of a smaller population and then also is supporting the tourist industry.
David Paleschuck
And Thank you Ron, for keeping me honest on the population 4 million in LA 8.5 in NYC and in Dennis here since there's more skews more interested shops and 711. I believe that just walking around. And that's over 14,000 nationally. I believe it I haven't been around the entire country and I'm only two days in, but I believe it just based on what I've seen. But the question that begs is, why are there so many? And really who are they catering to? You know, it's really about tourism and lawn you're hitting that right now. And so the thing that I was struck by today was Who are these cannabis dispensaries catering? And, and then when I went in and saw some of the prices, it became really clear to me that they're definitely catering to tourists, because I would say the majority of Thai people just couldn't afford some of the prices that that I was looking at today. So I was quite shocked. Wow. No, 9 million registered. June 10. For growing at home. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah, it's, and yes, Caleb, Seven-Elevens are everywhere in Bangkok. There are two on my block right here. Cool. All right. Well, let's jump in. I'll give you a little tour and answer some questions. If I can take us on this special tour.
Adriana Hemans
David, we want the inside.
David Paleschuck
All right. Well, this morning, I went to cookies. And I have to admit, I was pretty excited to go. Having seen all of the hype online. You know whether it's on Instagram or LinkedIn or some of the other places, I was really excited to go see what cookies was doing in Thailand. From the get-go, I'll say I've been interested in cookies. Because cookies is really a lifestyle brand like an apparel brand. In some ways more than they were a cannabis brand. Certainly, one could make that statement and feel comfortable making that statement when you think about where their money is being generated from more in apparel and accessories than cannabis. And so that said I was excited to go there today. When I got there, in the US we own a second floor in a small courtyard with some very upscale shops. As you can see, there's a sign in front. There was a Cohibin cigar shop, which was very upscale. There was some really beautiful shops right in that right in that little cul de sac if you will. So I went in, went upstairs and was really surprised by the size of the store. Probably tops it was maybe 250 square feet. So very small, with a focus more on accessories than anything. And Adriana I had promised you I was going to bring you back a cookies hoodie from Thailand. And my jaw hit the floor when I converted the price and realized that cookies hoodie from Thailand was just slightly about $130. And I made a comment like did they think they were supreme? And they didn't like that comment I could tell you that's interesting.
Adriana Hemans
So do you really are like trying to occupy this luxury? Only tourists can afford it. We're a lifestyle brand less so than an actual cannabis dispensary.
David Paleschuck
And in relative, you know, in Dennis, Dennis is asking that question. There was one table in the middle of the room which had, I don't know probably a dozen streams which and that's really that's really all they were all they were selling other than the merch. You know, I did end up and I shouldn't say too that those strains come from the US in whether the flower comes from the US. You know, that's, that's really not for me to say but I have a hunch it does. And it was just interesting because, you know, watching the people come in watching what they bought, you know, was more about the threes than anything else. And then having gone to a number of other dispensaries after cookies. I was shocked at how much more of an assortment they had. So, so that said, you know, there were things like fishscale there was runs there was pancake is doggy bag, which is snooped strain. You know, there were all the typical cookies strains. But it was interesting, that's not really what the shop was about, you know, the shop is a lifestyle shop. And, you know, it's just interesting, it's, it was interesting where it was and what they were selling and the prices that they were selling them for, you know, which leads me to believe that you know, this is really a tourist play and a lifestyle play more than anything.
Adriana Hemans
Interesting. Jeremy Dukes in our in our chat here is heading to Bangkok on Sunday. Curious Jeremy if seeing this is influencing where you plan to visit when you go there, or if you are planning to visit a dispensary at all. And Caleb is taking runs clones right now. synchronicity.
David Paleschuck
Yeah. Yeah, pretty interesting. You know, just before we jump off of cookies, you know, one thing I have to say? I was underwhelmed for sure. But I bought an eighth and eighth translated to about $82. Which, I guess for me is that's pricey. Yeah, way more expensive. Yeah, way more expensive than I, I purchased my cannabis for. But that said, I bought in eighth, the Caribbean in a cookies bag. And I walked out the store. And one of the things I did was, I opened the bag just to look as I was out on the street. And what I realized was they put it in a in a blue in a blue bag. But this wasn't the bag that it was in in the store. And one of the reasons why I bought that particular strain was because I liked I liked the bag, and I thought it would just be a great little bag to have from Thailand. So I went back in the store. And I said, here's the bag that you have this in, you know, like, where's the display bag that I thought it was going to come in. And she said, we don't we don't sell our products in our bags, because people tried to rip our bags off and knock our bags off. And I thought that was just intriguing to me. I mean, if I had gone into a Nike store here, and they threw my brand new Nikes into a bag and say we don't put it into a Nike box because people try to rip it off or knock it off. You know, it just didn't make sense to me. I understand that trying to protect their brand. But one needs to build the brand before they protect their brand to. So I was a little disappointed by that as well. I felt I felt I was swindled like probably any tourist would have felt they were swindled walking into an operation like that. I just didn't really feel I got my money's worth. And so. So for that cookies, I'm sorry to give you that review. But maybe I should have managed my expectations a little bit better. And really, my focus moving forward for the next week will be really focused on the tie brands and the Thai nationals that are growing weed here. You know, some of those companies are Highlander, Dr. Green, Siam Green T Rex, TaraTerra, and Powerpuff. Tara, Tara, I think those are the companies that I need to go see. And quite frankly, probably even get out of Bangkok to see some of the more real Thai brands.
Adriana Hemans
Yeah, I love that. I'm glad that you're getting that experience and that you can come back and share it with us about what's going on with the locals, the people who are actually handling the plant growing the plant and bringing it to market.
David Paleschuck
Absolutely. And that's what I'm more interested in. And that's what I really felt I was coming here to learn more about. You know, I'm not so interested in the people I know from California that are either legally or illegally moving product into Thailand. Now. I've seen all those strains. I'm familiar with all those strains. There's nothing new for me to see or learn. What I'm interested now is, again, meeting the call debater's meeting the Thai people learning how important cannabis in the history of cannabis is to Thailand. Just getting a better sense of that, I think, will take a little more than just two days being in Bangkok. But but that's what I look forward to. And that's really what I came here. For. Yeah, we'll see. And I think Dennis agrees with me. I'm glad that somebody in Thailand, you know, was agreeing with me. Because I feel I immediately came to conclusions about the scene here in bad cop and, and I just get the sense that's not the scene in the rest of Thailand. And then, you know, yeah, that's a great question, Caleb, I wonder if you can make a living wage working in the cannabis industry, you might be able to, if you're Thai, I think it could be difficult if you're, you know, a non-Thai person moving in, and trying to make a living, like you might, you know, in the US or somewhere else. But our next slide is really interesting to just because that's on my way back from cities. The shots were just everywhere. I mean, literally everywhere. So I just took a half hour walk back to my hotel and photograph as many as I could find. And quite frankly, there's so many more shots than this. I don't know, there's probably a dozen here. By the time I got even close to my hotel, I was like, I can't even I can't even document all of these shops. There's just so many. You know, and again, they specialize in slightly different things. They have different strains. But for the most part, everything is hybrid, or at least that's what my experience was. I had asked to see indicas and sativa is, but they were pretty much hybrid. So there was some interesting Candyland. sativa, which I had tried earlier today that was nice and sweet and very earthy. I thought perhaps it was grown outdoors. But I'm told that most of the growing is done indoors, because it's too hot. There's too many insects and pests so I'm told that most is grown indoor here. And Dennis just because you're here I'd be curious to know what your thoughts is, is on that as well.
Adriana Hemans
Looking at these pictures you have David it looks like the image on the top says hi society, which I can only see the top of the building, but it seems like sort of a an upscale like modern design. And then underneath there, it looks like you have a statue of a superhero in a little leotard pointing in so more like a comic book store vibe. Can you share with us a little bit about how these dispensaries are designed and who you think they're looking to attract what segments of the of the population?
David Paleschuck
Wow. I have a feeling well, I could say the high society BKK was in an upscale actually was just across the street from the cookie store on the same block, which is more upscale than then Sukhumvit which is the best way to describe Sukhumvit is probably Times Square in the 80s you know, super crowded, a bit seedy you know so this is the area where lots of these dispensaries are. And you know, it was just interesting to see I don't necessarily know who they're appealing to. I think they're appealing to tourists. You know, to it's funny because we're talking about the look and feel of a dispensary. And while they could design a dispensary to attract a certain consumer, I just can't see Thai nationals walking into these places, paying the prices that that they're asking for. You know, so that's interesting, but I truly think they're appealing to tourists. You know, and in the location that these places are located you know, Thailand has Thailand is known for its sex trade and its sex workers. And much of these shops are in the same area. So, you know, the truth is, it fits right into the tourist trade for Thailand because people do come here for certain reasons and I think cannabis on four alternatively, you know, false posing to the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll category. If I just put it so gently.
Adriana Hemans
We have a couple of questions from both Jeremy and Ron, similar questions. Did you notice any testing or compliance labels or any COAs on any of the products?
David Paleschuck
None. In fact, if you can see that, that's oops, that's all the game. So it's a barcode. It does, it does say, it's pretty funny. It does say THC, but it's actually whited out. So there's no COAs that I saw no testing. There was a percentage of THC on basically all of the displays, which were quite low 25% and below for THC. Again, I'm THC is not my only metric. I mean, terpenes and other things. So. So I think I know enough to look beyond the just the THC level. But it was it was interesting. It was interesting to see, just quickly, did I see any American edibles? No, I did not. It were actually there were no edibles that I saw, and I believe legally, they only sell flour. And I would almost defer to Dennis just because he's, he's here and he's a local but no, I did not see any edibles. It was all flour. Um, so. So I was I was surprised, you know, in terms of no testing, or anything like that. No American brands other than cookies, at least that I saw. Yeah, it was it was quite interesting. And quite frankly, in some ways. I'm glad I didn't see American brand. Because I think I think in some ways that might have saddened me a little bit Local Flavor some chance to develop.
Adriana Hemans
Yeah, yeah.
David Paleschuck
Absolutely. Um, should we jump to the next slide?
Adriana Hemans
Let's do it.
David Paleschuck
If we have more audience participation. This is a fun one. So this is related to what David was talking about with dispensaries catering to tourism. And the question is really to what extent is it for tourists or what percentage of customers are foreign tourists? And the question is this. It's about a specific dispensary in Chiang Mai, the Artemus 98 dispensary reported to the Bangkok Post. What percentage of their customers are foreign tourists? Is it A 45%? B 60%. C 75% or D 90%. Take your best guess, drop it in the chat. This is one dispensary. They were quoted in the Bangkok post an article that came out on March 2.
David Paleschuck
And it's important to note to Chiang Mai is in the north. Definitely on the tourist trail for sure.
Adriana Hemans
We have three votes already for D which is 90%.
David Paleschuck
Triple D's.
Adriana Hemans
I feel like we shouldn't let Dennis gasp because he'll give it away because I'm sure he knows the answer.
David Paleschuck
Dennis knows the answer. I think Dennis alluded to the answer already. Yeah. Well, let's jump to it. What's that answer?
Adriana Hemans
Everybody, you guessed it. You are correct. Everyone got it. Right. It's 90%.
David Paleschuck
Yeah. 90%. And when I asked at the cookie store, what was the percentage of tourists that came in, versus the number of Thai nationals that purchase? And they said 95% are tourists. 5% are Thai nationals. And I had asked where they're people that came in and just bought accessories and not cannabis. And they said absolutely, that, that people were really traveling out of their way to you know, grab a cookie shirt or a cookie, sweetie, and I'm sure that's why that's why those prices are what they are. But I was quite surprised. I was quite surprised. And again, just it was really eye-opening to see you know, lines of Taurus waiting to go into these different shops and so it really is all about tourist destination travel. And that's something that you know, has been picking up for sure. You know, whether it's in California with consumption lounges, or sorry, Las Vegas. With consumption lounges. really interesting to see. And so I think Thailand will have an amazing, you know, towards cannabis industry. Yeah, no doubt about that.
Adriana Hemans
Just zooming out for a second and talking about cannabis tourism in general, the Huffington Post reported that 37% of tourists are make decisions based on where they can purchase cannabis, whether they can purchase it in the place, they're going to how they're going to spend their time. So it really is such an impactful part of the cannabis industry and the tourism industry.
David Paleschuck
Absolutely, and I'm sure tourism is, is going to skyrocket if it hasn't already. You know, I have to I have to add, it was a bit weird, you know, showing my passport to purchase cannabis. You know, my, my fear was that, I'm going to get back to the airport, and I'm going to be on a list and you're going to be looking. But yeah, just really, really, really interesting. Yeah. What else? My head is spinning. And it's also we're committed, it's 2:40 in the morning here, so it's 23.
Adriana Hemans
Well, thanks for staying up late with us because it's a bit of fun conversation. And I'm even more excited to learn about when you're visiting the cultivators and what that experience is like.
David Paleschuck
I'm, I'm excited. I'm excited to meet with the people and type people in cannabis. And, you know, just experience that. That's really what I came for.
Adriana Hemans
Yeah. Let's talk for a second about cannabis tourism in general, and do another Canada quiz segment. And I need to first of all apologize for this because when I originally posted this quiz, I misspelled the country name of Colombia and put a U in it. Sorry about that. But I spell it correctly here. Which destination is the top choice among cannabis industry insiders to explore cannabis tourism, according to a nonscientific LinkedIn poll posted by yours truly? And most of my network are people who work in cannabis. So that's why we're referring to them as the industry insiders. And the choices are A: Jamaica, B: the Netherlands, C: Colombia, D: Thailand. What do you think? What's the most popular choice? Where do people want to visit and check out what the cannabis industry has to offer in these places?
David Paleschuck
You know, this is a this is such a funny, a funny question for me. I remember being in college and going to Amsterdam, and I spent a year in Paris. So my weekends were in Amsterdam. And I remember telling all my friends about the coffee shops in Amsterdam, and no one believed me. And then I moved from New York to Seattle. And when it went legal there, I told the same story, and nobody believed me. And here I am in Thailand, basically living the same experience. And finally, people are starting to realize, okay. Don't know, this is a tough one, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Colombia, or Thailand.
Adriana Hemans
We have 123 guesses for a Jamaica. Michelle said personally, she would like to visit de Thailand. Thanks, Michelle. Let's see, I think I need to refresh my page so I can see all the new comments coming in. We have one vote for another vote for Jamaica. And then let's see, no one so far has voted for B, the Netherlands or C Colombia. says a Jamaica and then de Thailand.
David Paleschuck
Interesting. Well, I'm curious. I'm curious to see what people are thinking about what people were talking about.
Adriana Hemans
And the answer is Thailand, but by a very narrow margin. So Thailand came in first 39% of the industry insiders in my network wanted to visit Thailand to explore cannabis tourism. The Netherlands got 32% and then Jamaica came in at 22%. Colombia, sadly was last with 8%. And there was I think about 79 people voted for this poll, nonscientific LinkedIn poll.
David Paleschuck
You know, it's funny, I was hoping to actually fly through Amsterdam on the way to Bangkok, but since I was leaving from Seattle, and it's 2525 hours to get here, I just knew that that was not possible, but I will return to Amsterdam for probably my 100th time. So I look forward to that again. Amsterdam It's a great city, one of my favorites. Yeah. Really interesting. Um, you know, I'll be here another week I get back next Wednesday. And then. And then next Thursday, we have our next show again. Yeah. And I'm excited about that we, we had David Goubert, who's the president and CEO of air wellness. And we're going to be talking with him about MSO strategies, regional roadmaps and revolving doors. And what we mean by that is, we've seen lots of MSOs, go into different states, and then leave those states because they're not profitable. They're not able to get the scale, the M economies and the efficiencies that come with scale. So a lot of the MSOs have been entering states and then leaving states and we just want to get want to get our head around that and find out what's going on. So I'm looking forward to our guest in our show next week as well.
Adriana Hemans
Yeah, so definitely join us. Thank you to everyone who commented and voted for our little Canna quiz. Please join us next week, Thursday, March 16th, when we talk to David Goubert, President & CEO of AYR Wellness about MSO strategies and revolving doors. And, David, thank you so much for staying up late and sharing your pictures with us, I hope you have an amazing trip and that you actually take some time to relax and unwind and don't work the entire time.
David Paleschuck
I'm working on my next book, and it's coming along wonderfully. So that's what 12 hours on an airplane is good for. So again, I'm super excited about this trip. I'm really glad that folks joined us today. And that I was able to shed some light and share a little bit of my journey. If anybody has any questions, feel free to reach me directly at David at brandingbud.com. Or if you have any recommendations where maybe I should check things out here while I'm here. But in the meantime, it's time for me to go to sleep. It's 2:45 in the morning, I thank everybody for joining us today. I hope I was able to shed a little light on what's going on here in Bangkok in Thailand and thank everybody,
Adriana Hemans
We'll be posting those pictures from David's the first part of David's trip on our LinkedIn page branding, but live so go follow us. And you can get updates on David's travels and also future branding but live shows. Thanks, everybody.
David Paleschuck
Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Adriana. As always, you're my best cannabis friend. And I thank you for what you do and who you are. And I am looking forward to seeing everybody next week. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next week. Bye.