Cannabis pizza won’t get you high

Crazy Happy Pizza is a mash-up of toppings evoking the flavours of Tom Yum Gai soup and deep-fried cannabis leaves

Bangkok: One of Thailand’s major fast food chains has been promoting its “Crazy Happy Pizza” this month, an under-the-radar product topped with a cannabis leaf. It’s legal, but won’t get you high.

Veterans of the backpacker trail, familiar with the legendary pizza parlours of neighbouring Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh that offer powerful marijuana as an optional condiment, might feel downright cheated.

“It’s just a marketing campaign. and you can taste the cannabis and then if you have enough, you maybe get a bit sleepy,” said Panusak Suensatboon, general manager of The Pizza Company.

The Crazy Happy Pizza is a mash-up of toppings evoking the flavours of Thailand’s famous Tom Yum Gai soup along with a deep-fried cannabis leaf on top.

Cannabis is also infused into the cheese crust and there’s chopped cannabis in the dipping sauce. A 9-inch pie costs 499 baht (about $ 15). Customers preferring a do-it-yourself variety can choose their own toppings, with a 100 baht ($ 3) surcharge for two or three cannabis leaves.

Recreational marijuana is still illegal in Thailand, and can earn you a fine and time in jail, even though drug laws have been liberalised in the past few years. Crazy Happy Pizza’s sales have been lackluster, according to Panusak. It cannot legally be advertised or sold to anyone under the age of 12. He estimates that when the company ends its sales promotion, it will have to throw away about a fifth of the cannabis leaves it acquired. He also cited durian pizza, incorporating the exotic and pricey tropical Asian fruit known for its pungent smell, as another example of his company’s innovations.