China’s dropout generation

David Frazier

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Cannabis consumption is illegal for Chinese citizens, but that hasn’t stopped some from partaking in Thailand. Credit: David Frazier

The people in this story are real, but their names have been changed.

Last year, at a music festival in Thailand, I sat around a small campfire with a group of Chinese hippies. Wu, who was thirty-nine and lived in Bangkok, was gently toking on a joint and explaining how cannabis had given him a spiritual epiphany.

“I never smoked marijuana before I came to Thailand,” Wu told the group, speaking softly.

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