cannabisnews.com: Harboring Hashish





Harboring Hashish
Posted by CN Staff on June 17, 2002 at 15:38:17 PT
Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent
Source: St. Petersburg Times 
Ketama, Morocco -- High in the Rif Mountains, a work crew busily repairs a roadside water main. Around the bend, another group of men just as busily diverts water from the main to irrigate an illegal but healthy stand of plants. Here, within full view of a mosque, several houses and the occasional passing cop, the men are growing cannabis sativa. Or, as it is more commonly known, marijuana. Morocco ranks among the world's largest producers of marijuana, much of which is processed into a potent substance called hashish and smuggled into Europe. 
So much Moroccan hashish is exported -- 1,500 tons a year -- that the country gets most of its hard currency from the illegal hash trade. That's why it surprised everyone when the Moroccan government announced in 2001 that it planned to eliminate all hashish production within seven years. It was a stunningly ambitious goal for a country whose citizens fondly refer to hashish as "the green petrol." And now, as Britain and other European nations relax their own marijuana laws, Morocco's war on drugs already seems to be losing whatever momentum it might briefly have had. "There's $3-billion every year coming in from drugs," notes Aboubakr Jamai, director of publication for Le Journal, a weekly Moroccan investigative newspaper. "I can't imagine all that takes place without the authorization of officials." The Moroccan government, which is a party to several international drug control treaties, denies any official complicity in the hashish trade. It cites many efforts to halt the flow of drugs, among them increasing the maximum penalty for narcotics violations to 30 years in jail and an $80,000 fine. A 35-year-old tour guide in Casablanca But the typical sentence for major drug trafficking remains only 10 years. And many of those arrested have been foreigners, not the Moroccan drug barons who "have a great deal of influence and power" in the northern part of the country, where most of the marijuana is grown, according to a U.S. State Department global narcotics report. Moreover, the report says, Morocco's estimates of the amount of land under cannabis cultivation are "increasingly questionable." The Moroccan government now says that about 160,500 acres are used to grow cannabis, about three times what it estimated several years ago. The European Union contends the real figure is closer to 210,000 acres. Most Moroccan hashish comes from the Rif Mountains, to the north and east of the country's major cities. It is an area of spectacular beauty but poor soil that is unfit for raising olives or other cash crops. As a result, the steep slopes are covered with cannabis plants that grow right up to the narrow, bumpy road that snakes precariously along the Rif's spine. Despite chilly temperatures and a thickening fog, men, women and even children were working on several hashish "plantations" one recent afternoon. One man, typical of those on the lowest rung of the hash trade, said he earns $50 a day, a princely sum in a country where the per capita income is less than $4 per day. Among his jobs is weeding out an invasive flowering plant whose fragrance can destroy the nearby cannabis, he said. When the marijuana is harvested in another two weeks, it will be dried and culled of seeds and stems. Some of the resulting product will be sold as what Americans call "grass," "weed" or "pot," and what Moroccans know as "kif." Most of the marijuana, though, will be further processed and converted into hashish oil or resin. This is the famous "kif of the Rif," as Moroccans call it. While it sells locally for $2 a gram, it will be worth $30 a gram by the time it reaches Amsterdam, where cannabis use has been decriminalized for years. One variety, named King Hassan Supreme after the popular Moroccan monarch who died in 1999, is considered of such high quality that it won Amsterdam's Cannabis Cup for the best imported hashish. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.sptimes.com/2002/06/17/Worldandnation/Harboring_hashish.shtmlSource: St. Petersburg Times (FL)Author: Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent Published: June 17, 2002 Copyright: 2002 St. Petersburg TimesContact: letters sptimes.comWebsite: http://www.sptimes.com/Related Articles:Struggling Lebanese Farmers Return to Illegal Crophttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10002.shtmlCattlemen in Lebanon Miss Lucre of Hashishhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9276.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by VitaminT on June 18, 2002 at 09:40:16 PT
DEA on BBC
Today on BBC World Service Radio Asa Hutchison was interviewed. The interviewer pointed out that the Taliban had all but completely stopped the cultivation of Opium Poppies. Now that the Taliban are gone production is again in full swing. Keeping up Bush administration rhetoric against the Taliban, Hutchison said, without supporting evidence of course, that the Taliban continued exports of Heroin from stockpiles held in warehouses.Too bad no mention was made of the $43 million paid by the US government to the Taliban last year to support it's irradication efforts. I wonder if any of that money was used to finance the September 11, 2001 assaults on America?
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Comment #6 posted by TroutMask on June 18, 2002 at 06:43:44 PT
We are winning.
"as Britain and other European nations relax their own marijuana laws, Morocco's war on drugs already seems to be losing whatever momentum it might briefly have had"It appears the dominoes are already toppling before the first one has even fallen.IMHO, Britain is a key country for decrim. Britain decrim'ing will encourage Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Canada decrim'ing will definitely set off Mexico decrim'ing. And once both our N. American neighbors have decrim'ed, GAME OVER for marijuana prohibition in the US.Wheeee!-TM
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Comment #5 posted by Industrial Strength on June 17, 2002 at 22:16:21 PT
the taliban
The taliban quite successfully faught opium production with US dollars. The war on drugs is far more important than human rights. The only way you can moderately successfully wage this "war" is by having a system of government like the taliban in place. And not even uncle Sam and his smart bombs can really destabilize Afghanistan further...They are a warring people. When they are not fighting the Soviets or the Americans or whoever, they are fighting each other. Ancient war lords, ancient tribes, ancient claims. Endless ancient bloodshed, ancient setbacks, an ancient lack of gains...
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on June 17, 2002 at 18:11:21 PT
 The world needs kind buds now more than ever. 
Yet although cannabis is the most persecuted plant on the planet, it is also the most widely cultivated. Cannabis is grown on every inhabited continent, indeed it can be found in every single city on earth, something that can be said for no other plant species.http://www.hempbc.com/articles/2454.html The growing revolution 
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Comment #3 posted by cltrldmg on June 17, 2002 at 18:02:25 PT
the other side of prohibition
"Most Moroccan hashish comes from the Rif Mountains, to the north and east of the country's major cities. It is an area of spectacular beauty but poor soil that is unfit for raising olives or other cash crops. "So what are the people who live there going to do to live once they've gone through with their 'eradication' programs? As they've said, it's impossible to profitably grow anything else in that region, and developing other industrial jobs or services is something that takes time.I think that's something we don't think about enough, the importance of the drug trade in undeveloped third world countries, you need to balance the needs of the poor countries with our own drug policies. It might even benefit the west long-term, for example the war on poppy farmers in Afghanistan probably contributes a good deal to destabilising the country and lets people like the Taliban get into power.
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Comment #2 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on June 17, 2002 at 17:38:56 PT
Cultural Tolerance of cannabis
I have heard several refeences to Arabic and Muslim cultures being tolerant of cannabis culture - indeed defining it over the centuries - while prohibiting tobacco and alcohol explicitly, and have wondered:Is it possibly an artificial but fundamental stumbling block in western - muslim-arabic relations? A Judeo-Christian context for cannabis suppression as a way of fostering suspicion and distrust of muslim-arabic cultures? America sure loves to smoke nasty tobacco, "drink scotch whiskey and die behing the wheel", so to speak.Just wondering......Meanwhile..back at the ranch....Its clear that the Iron Law of Prohibition transcends race and culture!!*******
"There's $3-billion every year coming in from drugs," notes Aboubakr Jamai, director of publication for Le Journal, a weekly Moroccan investigative newspaper. "I can't imagine all that takes place without the authorization of officials." 
 
The Moroccan government, which is a party to several international drug control treaties, denies any official complicity in the hashish trade. It cites many efforts to halt the flow of drugs, among them increasing the maximum penalty for narcotics violations to 30 years in jail and an $80,000 fine. *******
"We can fight Drugs viciously and get blessings from the Americans and all the while we are supporting outrageous profits from sales because we are so intense on cracking down. It is a beautiful system these Americans have forced upon us"I sure wish I could have some of that...."All wars are based in Deception" - Sun Tzu 
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Comment #1 posted by p4me on June 17, 2002 at 17:14:15 PT
great article
It is in the rest of the article that it gets good. It mentions that tabacco and alcohol are taboo to Moslems and that marijuana is socially acceptable with 25% of the adult population being regular users. It tells of the practice of dealers chasing foreigner's cabs in the hope of making a sale and the diehard dealer they cited followed a tourist 50 miles. It is the money stupid. In the Dollar we trust.1,2
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