It was always bound to happen since it seems that everyone is growing weed these days in Thailand since they legalized it for medicinal as well as recreational use earlier in the year. Thousands of licenses to grow marijuana were issued all around the country and many of those were in this province. It was only a matter of time before we ran into one of these and we weren't even looking for it. We certainly weren't going to violate their space or steal anything.
As I have said many times before there is a global misconception that because we have the word "Hash" in the name of our organization that we are somehow affiliated with drugs. We are not and never have been. The Hash is referring to the meat meal that was served to British officers in the mess hall nearly 100 years ago in Kuala Lumpur.
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I don't really keep up with it because believe it or not I haven't had any weed since they legalized it even though it is available basically everywhere and not only is it not illegal but it isn't even frowned upon. Well done Thailand. I was told that most of the grow operations are indoors because it is easier to control the climate and eliminate theft. However, based on the sheer volume of grow licenses that were issued and the amount of good land around Chiang Mai we knew at some point that we were going to run into one of these things. That's exactly what happened on one of our last runs.
About 20 km outside of Chiang Mai city center, we were on a run at one of our usual locations when we came upon an outdoor grow site. There was a surprising lack of security and just a small fence. There didn't seem to be anyone that was even watching it. We just took some photos with the signs and then moved on. One thing that is very important with the Hash House Harriers is that we are not viewed as a nuisance. Globally it is very important to the group that we be upstanding members of whatever community that we are in and even though we have no central leadership, if one group were to be engaged in making the "brand name" look bad, they would be shunned by all other Hash kennels around the world.
This is why we never litter and even pick up trash on our runs. We respect the private property that we are trespassing on during almost every run and when possible, we ask permission to use the land. We have only had problems with people getting upset about us being on their land a couple of times and after we explained what we were doing one of the people that complained about us being there actually joined us for a beer and now has been a member of our group for many years. People are just afraid of what they don't understand and imagine how you would feel about your own land if all of a sudden 30 foreigners dressed in silly clothes were running through your yard? You would probably be a little bit surprised and perhaps afraid.
Therefore we always maintain a good relationship with the communities that we are in and this includes not just being polite where we go and never stealing anything, but also doing community outreach programs and donating time and money to charities.
It was still kind of fun to all of us to see a marijuana farm in an area that just a few years ago would have seized the crops, burned them, and arrested the people that were growing it. A lot can change in a couple of years I guess!
We are still doing 3 runs per week at the minimum and all visitors to the area are welcome to come and join in. Full details are available on our official website
