Vapes and cannabis in Thailand are covered by two different laws

The short version

• Selling and importing vapes and e-cigarettes is banned in Thailand — the import ban since 2014, the sale ban since 2015.
• Any shop or street stall selling vape devices is trading outside that ban, whatever its signage says.
• LABS DISPENSARY does not stock vapes, e-cigarettes, cartridges, nicotine pouches or tobacco.
• Cannabis flower is a separate regime: a controlled herb, sold at licensed premises, in person, to adults 20 and over with a prescription issued in Thailand.
• The rules for flower are summarised, with links to the official notices, in the tourist legal guide on this site.

The vape ban: what is actually prohibited

Official source

Thailand prohibits the import and the sale of e-cigarettes, vaping devices and their liquids. The import ban rests on a Ministry of Commerce notification in force since late 2014; the sale ban on Consumer Protection Board orders in force since early 2015. Neither is a recent or a provisional measure, and both apply to nicotine and non-nicotine devices alike.

The two bans reach different people through different laws. Import and possession of imported devices fall under customs law, where the routine outcome is confiscation and a fine assessed against the value of the goods; selling is pursued separately under the consumer-protection orders, which carry their own penalties for the trader. Between them, the stall and its customer both carry risk.

Why a cannabis dispensary keeps clear of vapes entirely

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

A cannabis licence in Thailand is conditional and revocable, and enforcement — uneven in the past, visibly tightening now — has most often reached Pattaya's cannabis shops through something else on the shelf, vapes being the recurring example. A dispensary that sells you a vape is telling you how it weighs rules against revenue, and that is worth knowing before you trust it on anything else.

So the answer at our counter is simply no: no devices, no pods, no liquids, no tobacco. If you came looking for a vape shop, this page cannot point you to a legal one, because under the current ban there is no such thing in Thailand.

Cannabis flower: the regime that does exist

Official source

Cannabis flower is treated by the Thai notices as a controlled herb. It may be sold at licensed premises, in person, to adults 20 and over, against a prescription issued in Thailand; sale through electronic channels and advertising are prohibited. The ministerial regulation of April 2026 tightened which premises can hold a licence.

That is a conditional permission, not a free market — but unlike the vape trade, it is a legal one. The full summary, with links to the government notices it restates, is in the tourist legal guide on this site.

If you arrived in Thailand with a vape in your bag

Practical caution — not a legal conclusion

This guide cannot tell you what will happen at any given checkpoint, and it does not try. What can be said is that the import ban applies at the border, that confiscation is the routine outcome, and that buying a replacement from a beach vendor puts money into exactly the trade the ban targets — with no recourse if the device is faulty or the liquid is not what it claims.

The practical advice is unexciting: treat vaping the way you would treat any banned goods while you are a guest in the country, and do not let a street stall convince you the rule stopped existing because the stall does.

Vapes and the law: questions