On June 9, the day cannabis was decriminalized, Colin Stevens and Prajya “Phil” Aura-ek felt the same disbelief as many others.
Learning that a few dispensaries had already opened in Bangkok to sell buds legally, the chef and his partners, like many others, kicked things into gear to rush open one of their own.
“I was super excited I could not even sleep properly,” Phil said. “I really thought it would take at least two more years for Thailand to come into this step of decriminalization.”
“I went to Highland Cafe to see with my own eyes that they sold buds,” he added. “I waited a few more days and saw more and more dispensaries opened.”
Three days after weed became legal, Phil said he called Stevens and told him “Let’s do this.”
Unlike some others jumping into the fray, they had ample access.
Despite working in the kitchens of restaurants such as Ash Kickers and Tortilla Quemada, Stevens also had a vertical cannabis farm that for years has produced strains for the Government Pharmaceutical Organization. In short, Stevens had long been ready to take the retail plunge – it just hadn’t been legal to do so.
Within a week, the duo opened Sensii just next door to Stevens’s two-year-old Mexican eatery Tortilla Quemada. Stevens said the name is a play on sensimilla, the Spanish word for the seedless, female buds which contain high levels…