Breaking taboo, Morocco may okay pot in nod to struggling farmers
Country’s Rif valley is the world’s leading producer of hashish, but residents and growers live in poverty and fear of the law
Times of Israel / Associated Press (Israel)
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Morocco’s marijuana farmers live in a strange limbo in which the brilliant green fields are left alone, while the growers themselves face constant police harassment. A new draft law may bring some reprieve: It aims to legalize marijuana growing for medical and industrial uses, a radical idea for a Muslim nation. It could alleviate poverty and social unrest, but the proposal faces stiff opposition in this conservative country, as well as the suspicions of farmers themselves, who think politicians can do nothing help them. There are some 80,000 families in the northern Rif mountains of Morocco who make their living from growing pot, according to U.N. estimates; the region supplies nearly all of Europe's hashish.
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