A Thai restaurant started putting cannabis in their dishes to ‘enhance flavour’ after drug restrictions were relaxed in the country.

The Yum Three Kingdoms restaurant added cannabis salad, shrimps marinated in marijuana leaves, and a selection of teas among others in Khon Kaen province.

The restaurant’s speciality, raw salmon served with fresh cannabis leaves, has been the most popular because it is ‘affordable and unique'.

All of their seafood dipping sauce were has also infused with cannabis giving a different kick to the traditional spicy fish sauce locals were used to.

Kobchai Siharat, 25, the restaurant’s owner, said adding marijuana to their menu is the current trend in the food business as the Thai government approved parts of cannabis plants for use as ingredients.

He said: ‘Cannabis-infused food is in trend at the moment after the official approval and I feel like our restaurant has to follow too.’

The bark, stems, fibres, branches, roots, and leaves of marijuana plants can now be used in food preparation so more cannabis-inspired restaurants are expected to appear in the Thai market.

Following the guidelines, restaurants must provide medical disclaimers to the customers to warn them about the side effects of marijuana consumption.

The cannabis products that they were using to make food must also come from an approved community enterprise within or a neighbouring province.

Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul hopes the industry will generate extra revenue for the country, which has seen its income from tourism decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The liberalisation of cannabis laws has seen rising share prices for companies involved in the industry. Last week, Cosmetic and supplements producer, DOD Biotech Pcl , saw share prices climb as high as 11.6% after it said it would develop and manufacture dietary supplements and skincare products that contain hemp for retailer Beauty Community Pcl. Beauty Community jumped as high as 4.4% during trade against a benchmark gain of about 0.2%.