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Abdul Khaleq Bin
Abdullah inspects his cannabis field in the Rif Mountains in the Village of
Bani Hamed in the Ketama Abdul Ghaya valley, northern Morocco. Image credit: AP
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Growing the
narcotic was legal under royal mandate in certain regions till 1974.
Kettama
(Morocco): Abdul Khaleq Bin Abdullah strode among towering marijuana plants and
checked the buds for the telltale spots of white, indicating they are ready for
harvest.
By
September much of the crop has been picked and left to dry on the roofs of the
stone-and-wood huts that dot the Rif valley, the heart of Morocco’s pot-growing
region. Bin Abdullah openly grows the crop despite the risk: “We are regularly
subject to blackmail by the gendarmes,” he said as he scythed through stalks
and wrapped them into a bundle.
Morocco’s
marijuana farmers live in a strange limbo in which the brilliant green fields
are largely left alone, while the growers face constant police harassment. A
new draft law may bring some reprieve: It aims to legalise marijuana growing
for medical and industrial uses, in a radical step for an Arab nation that
could alleviate poverty and social unrest. But it faces stiff opposition in this
conservative country, as well as the suspicions of farmers themselves, who
think politicians can do nothing to help them.
Morocco
is joining many other countries, as well as some US states, in re-examining
policies toward drugs and looking to some degree of legalisation. But Morocco
has a strong taboo toward drugs, despite the centuries-old tradition of growing
the plant in the north.
Morocco is one of the world’s top suppliers of hashish. The World Customs
Authority reports that in 2013, 65 per cent of hashish seized at customs
worldwide came from Morocco, with most of that going to Europe.
Estimates
vary wildly for how much the business is worth, but legalisation would
certainly provide a substantial boost to farmers and to Morocco’s anaemic
economy, which will grow by just 2.5 per cent this year.
But
the farmers who cultivate the marijuana plants remain suspicious of any
measures by politicians who they claim have never done anything for their poor,
neglected region. They fear that legalisation might depress the already low
price of $8 a kilogram they receive.
“If
legalisation happened for all of Morocco, we could never compete with the other
farmers that have lots of land and the price of cannabis wouldn’t be any
different than that of carrots,” said Mohammad Bin Abdullah, an activist in the
village of Oud Abdul Ghaya.
While
customers pay top dollar for hashish and marijuana in the famed coffee shops of
Amsterdam, the Moroccan farmers who produce it make on average just $3,000 to
$4,000 a year.
Farmers
also complain about having to dodge police and avoiding the major towns for
fear of arrest — unless they are ready to pay bribes.
But
there are few alternatives. The valley’s rocky soil is poor and the only crop
that seems to thrive is marijuana. It was legal to grow under royal mandate in
certain regions of the Rif until 1974, when the government passed a blanket ban
on the cultivation and consumption of all drugs.
The
security-centered approach to the problem has failed, argued Mahdi Bin Saeed, a
lawmaker with the opposition Party of Authenticity and Modernity that has
presented parliament with the legalisation law.
“If
Morocco has a crop that could produce these medicines that could be sold today
in the US, Canada and France, it is an employment opportunity for citizens
living in a miserable situation,” Bin Saeed said. “It’s a win-win, for the
state, because there is tax, and for the citizens, because they are in an
illegal situation.”
Mustafa
Khalfi, Morocco’s government spokesman and communications minister, refused to
discuss the proposed draft law when asked, pointing only to government efforts
to combat drug smuggling and reduce the amount of acreage under cultivation.
It
remains to be seen if the law will be scheduled for a debate in parliament when
the new session begins October 10.
The
government has repeatedly tried but failed to persuade farmers to substitute
other crops. By 2010, most alternative crop programs had been suspended.
Walking
along terraces of rocky earth, 63-year-old Mohammad Fathi said he tried to grow
other crops, and was part of a cooperative that grew olives, figs and almonds.
It failed due to lack of rain.
“Marijuana,”
he said, “resists the drought that kills other plants.”
Source: http://gulfnews.com
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