Cannabis in Culture and Thai History

Last updated October 2026.

An earlier version of this article was about “highdeas”, the odd ideas people say they have while high. We have retired that angle. This page is not about using cannabis for inspiration, and it makes no claims about what cannabis does to the mind. Instead, it looks at the documented place cannabis holds in culture: in language, music, film, literature, craft and Thai history.

Language: where the words come from

Cannabis has picked up a remarkable number of names, and some of them travelled a long way.

Ganja. Borrowed from Hindi gāñjā. In India the word referred specifically to the flowers, while charas meant the resin and bhang the leaves and seeds. The word reached the Caribbean with Indian indentured workers in the 19th century, and it is now the most common term for cannabis there.
Gancha. The Thai word, กัญชา, is one of several Asian words derived from the same root.
Hashish. Leafly traces the word to Arabic, roughly meaning “grass”.
420. The number is often wrongly said to be a police code. According to HISTORY and Wordorigins.org, it began in 1971 with a group of students at San Rafael High School in California, known as the Waldos, who met at 4:20 pm. The first known use in print was in their school newspaper in 1974. High Times later helped spread it worldwide, and a 1991 flyer it printed repeated the false police-code story.

Music

Cannabis has appeared in popular music for nearly a century. “Have You Ever Met That Funny Reefer Man” is a 1932 jazz song composed by J. Russel Robinson with lyrics by Andy Razaf. It was first recorded by Cab Calloway and his orchestra, and Calloway’s performance appears in the 1933 film International House.

Later, ganja became closely linked with reggae and the Rastafari movement in Jamaica. Cultural figures such as Bob Marley brought both to a worldwide audience through their music.

Film

One of the most famous cannabis films was never meant to be funny. Reefer Madness was produced in 1936, financed by a church group and intended as a morality tale for parents about the dangers of cannabis. It was rediscovered in the early 1970s and became an underground hit on college campuses, watched as an unintentional satire. In 1972, the reform group NORML screened it at California colleges to raise funds for a ballot initiative.

Literature and art

In 1840s Paris, a circle known as the Club des Hashischins met at the Hôtel Pimodan on the Île Saint-Louis, from about 1844 to 1849. Members and visitors are said to have included the writers Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas and Gérard de Nerval, and the painter Eugène Delacroix. Gautier described his first visit in an article for the Revue des Deux Mondes in February 1846. The club is remembered today mainly as a piece of literary history.

Closer to home, hemp has a long place in craft. Hmong textile makers in the region traditionally grew hemp in small family plots, wove it by hand on wooden looms and decorated it with indigo batik for skirts and baby carriers. Hmong story cloths, first made in the 1970s, were produced by women in refugee camps in Thailand and Laos.

Cannabis in Thai history

In Thailand, cannabis has a long but modest history. It appears in medicinal formulas recorded in a traditional medicine text from the reign of King Narai (1656 to 1688), and its root has been used in boat noodle broth. A 2019 review in the Journal of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine found that cannabis was used in some medicines and foods, but only to a limited extent, and was not part of Thai rituals.

The modern story is one of swings in policy:

Mid-1930s: the Cannabis Act B.E. 2477 prohibited cultivation, possession, sale and use.
1970s: Thai sticks became famous abroad, carried home by soldiers and travellers during the Vietnam War era.
1979: the Narcotics Act classed cannabis as a Category 5 narcotic.
June 2022: cannabis was removed from the narcotics list.
June 2025: cannabis flower became a controlled herb, available only with a prescription or medical certificate from a Thai-licensed practitioner.
September 2026: the cabinet approved a draft bill limiting cannabis to medical use, now before parliament.

Our article on Thai landrace cannabis and Thai sticks tells that story in more depth.

Culture and the rules today

Cultural history is not a guide to behaviour. In Thailand today, buyers must be 20 or over and hold a prescription, smoking in public places and on shop premises is not allowed, and cannabis may not be taken out of the country. Vapes and e-cigarettes are illegal. For the full picture, see our guide to cannabis rules in Thailand for visitors.

Questions?

If you are interested in the history of cannabis in Thailand, you are welcome to visit our store on Pattaya 3rd Road or contact the team. We are always glad to talk about it.

This article is general information, not legal or medical advice.

Cannabis in Culture: Language, Music, Art and Thai History

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