Section 66: Intoxication is not an excuse, except when involuntary
Statutory text (Thai original)
ความมึนเมาเพราะเสพย์สุราหรือสิ่งเมาอย่างอื่นจะยกขึ้นเป็นข้อแก้ตัวตามมาตรา ๖๕ ไม่ได้ เว้นแต่ความมึนเมานั้นจะได้เกิดโดยผู้เสพย์ไม่รู้ว่าสิ่งนั้นจะทำให้มึนเมา หรือได้เสพย์โดยถูกขืนใจให้เสพย์ และได้กระทำความผิดในขณะไม่สามารถรู้ผิดชอบ หรือไม่สามารถบังคับตนเองได้ ผู้กระทำความผิดจึงจะได้รับยกเว้นโทษสำหรับความผิดนั้น แต่ถ้าผู้นั้นยังสามารถรู้ผิดชอบอยู่บ้าง หรือยังสามารถบังคับตนเองได้บ้าง ศาลจะลงโทษน้อยกว่าที่กฎหมายกำหนดไว้สำหรับความผิดนั้นเพียงใดก็ได้
English translation
Intoxication caused by the consumption of liquor or other intoxicants cannot be raised as an excuse under Section 65, unless the intoxication occurred without the doer's knowledge or against his will and rendered him unable to appreciate right and wrong or unable to control himself, in which case the doer shall be exempt from punishment.
But if the doer still retains some ability to appreciate right and wrong, or still retains some ability to control himself, the Court may inflict a punishment less than that provided by law for such offence to any extent.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 66 qualifies the insanity excuse in Section 65 for cases of intoxication. The general rule is that self-induced intoxication is no excuse: a person who voluntarily consumes liquor or drugs cannot claim inability to appreciate right and wrong or to control himself. The narrow exception is involuntary intoxication, either without the doer's knowledge or by coercion, that produced total incapacity, which exempts from punishment; where only partial incapacity resulted, the court may reduce below the statutory minimum to any extent. The provision sits alongside Section 65 in Book 1 and turns on whether the intoxication was voluntary, so the manner in which the substance was taken is the decisive fact. It should not be confused with the Narcotics Act, which uses its own separately numbered provisions.
Why this matters in practice
For a defendant who was drunk or high at the time of the offence, Section 66 almost always closes the door: voluntary intoxication is not a defence and does not negate liability, so being intoxicated will not by itself defeat a finding of intent. The exception is genuinely narrow and requires proof that the intoxication was involuntary, imposed without knowledge or by force, and severe enough to destroy capacity. Where intoxication was voluntary but partial incapacity is shown, the realistic benefit is mitigation, not acquittal. Anyone charged with a serious offence committed while intoxicated should get criminal law advice on whether any part of Section 66 is arguable.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 5923/2559 (2016)
A person who voluntarily drinks alcohol knowing it causes intoxication cannot invoke that intoxication under Section 66 to claim inability to appreciate right and wrong or control himself.
The defendant entered a pub and drank, which the Court held to be voluntary consumption knowing it causes intoxication. He therefore could not raise the intoxication as an excuse under Section 66, and was held to have intended to kill, supporting the attempted murder conviction.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 6445/2537 (1994)
Even where an offence is committed while intoxicated by liquor, the doer cannot raise the intoxication as an excuse to avoid punishment under Section 66.
The defendant fired a gun, killing one person and wounding another. The Court held that even accepting he acted while intoxicated by liquor, he could not raise that intoxication as an excuse to escape punishment under Section 66, and remained liable for murder and attempted murder.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 27 Supreme Court decisions (1966 to 2018)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 4265/2561 (2018)
- Decision 2809/2556 (2013)
- Decision 6445/2537 (1994)
- Decision 100/2535 (1992)
- Decision 124/2530 (1987)
- Decision 7768/2548 (2005)
- Decision 6465/2547 (2004)
- Decision 8566/2552 (2009)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 78 18
- Section 91 14
- Section 33 11
- Section 83 10
- Section 90 10
- Section 32 9
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
Can I use being drunk as a defence to a crime?
No, if you drank voluntarily. Section 66 provides that self-induced intoxication cannot be raised as an excuse under Section 65, so voluntary drunkenness will not negate liability.
When does intoxication exempt someone from punishment?
Only where the intoxication occurred without the person's knowledge or against his will and made him unable to appreciate right and wrong or control himself. If some ability remained, the court may only reduce the punishment.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 66 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 66. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-66/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 66 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-66/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-66/"><p>Intoxication caused by the consumption of liquor or other intoxicants cannot be raised as an excuse under Section 65, unless the intoxication occurred without the doer's knowledge or against his will and rendered him unable to appreciate right and wrong or unable to control himself,…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 66 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-66/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.