In one of the weirdest forms of life imitating art, earlier this year, LiFTED wrote a satirical article about how rappers have been smoking too much weed so the government decided to roll back the legalization laws in Thailand for April Fool’s Day. Over the past week, the new Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, called for a comprehensive law for medical and research purposes only and for recreational use of cannabis to be outlawed again.

After the recent elections where the progressive Move Forward Party won with astounding numbers and promises of moving away from military and monarchy-aligned rule, their young and charismatic leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, was blocked from being the Prime Minister. The Pheu Thai Party was supposed to help Move Forward carry out the democratic will of the people. Instead, Pheu Thai dumped them for some of the military parties they had previously campaigned against to get Srettha into the most powerful post in the Kingdom. While this is a short-term win, it will harm Pheu Thai in the long run as the young people who are the future of Thailand, will remember being stabbed in the back, and 65 percent of the general public thinks this move was dastardly.

As the first Asian country to legalize marijuana, there were bumps and bruises along the way since it was done without proper regulations. The opposition has said that 10 percent of young people are now addicted to cannabis, which is a statistic that is very hard to believe. Nonetheless, the government plans to move forward with its new law in one year. Relegalizing marijuana would harm people who rely on tourism, farmers, growers, business owners, and a lot of rappers since they have all been working hard in the cannabis space.