Morocco to Legalise?

Up in the Rif mountains of Northern Morocco generations of economically marginalised farming families have defended, fought and served countless years in prison because they grow cannabis to pay for the otherwise unobtainable treats in life.  Treats like education, health care and decent

Up in the Rif mountains of Northern Morocco generations of economically marginalised farming families have defended, fought and served countless years in prison because they grow cannabis to pay for the otherwise unobtainable treats in life.  Treats like education, health care and decent houses.  Industry will never come to these mountains, there is no mineral wealth to exploit and, in a monetised world, growing food for market doesn’t provide nearly enough compensation to raise a family so their cannabis crops serve many ends.  Their cultural and economic existence depends on it.  This means that every time a head gets arrested or a farm gets raided it is also their culture and economy that is being arrested and raided.  No one in Morocco is happy with the current dynamic between law and reality.  But Allahu Akbar!  Changes are coming!  The Moroccan state authorities have officially started the process of legalisation.  From the fields of the Rif to the parliamentary chambers of Rabat, the legalisation of cannabis has become one of the hottest topics in the country.

The current focus of pot politics here is aimed at investigating positive uses of the plant and its cultivation and how best to incorporate a legitimate cannabis industry into the official state economy.  The main drivers of this campaign come from the Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM).  This party was created by the King as part of the reforms that followed the recent uprisings in North Africa; the fact that they are the ones touting legalisation shows that even the King himself is a supporter of the cause.

PAMs hope is that a legalised and state controlled cannabis industry will legitimise the incomes of the people of the Rif mountains and ‘become an important [legal] economic resource for the country.’  It will also legitimise Morocco’s largest source of foreign currency.  Since the Kings party brought the new debate into parliament in the middle of 2013 a second prominent party has drafted laws designed to regulate the industry, so, whilst nothing definite has yet been decided, some form of legalisation is definitely in the pipe line.  

But, don’t get too excited just yet.  Morocco is not the next Uruguay; although the personal use of cannabis is not specifically outlawed here, if the country were to explicitly legalise recreational use they would violate the international conventions they are signed up to and thus be subject to sanctions.  Given their national religion and ethnicity they are understandably nervous about taking such a bold step.  They’ve made their position perfectly clear, stating:

“We are not seeking to legalize the production of drugs, but to search for possible medical and industrial uses of this plant and create an alternative economy in the region...  Security policies aren’t solving the problem because it’s an economic and social issue so the PAM is trying to find a credible alternative.

Changing international trends are also affecting the Moroccan cannabis world in 2014.   The popularity and availability of legal synthetic chemical highs in the Western world is having a surprising impact in North Africa.  As a result, European demand for Moroccan hash has fallen sharply in recent years so more and more of it is moving eastwards through Algeria, which is pissing their government right off and reinforcing their out-right opposition to any form of legalisation that Morocco might suggest.  This has the knock-on effect of Moroccan farmers having to take a cut in money as the Algerian market is significantly less profitable than that of Europe.

However, despite the general trend in Europe, record levels of Moroccan hash are being seized in Spain, more than likely as a result of impoverished Spaniards looking to make a bit of extra cash to scrape by in their brutalised economy.  The Spanish government is constantly bickering with the Moroccans about the ‘scourge of hashish’ - one recent Spanish request for the Moroccan authorities to do more to control the hash supply was promptly met with response that ‘You should do more to stop so many of your people coming over here to buy it!’ 

When all of this is taken into account its hard to see the world’s best hash crops being legalised any time soon, but at least the people of the Rif could soon be earning a legal living from the cannabis plant.  

Just how is all this political talk affecting life on the slopes and in the streets of the Rif Mountains though?
Possession of fifteen grams or less has always been seen as a very minor offence so you’d have to be a real numpty to get into trouble for that amount.  Antisocial and problematic local individuals get arrested for petty cannabis offences, but this is used more as an excuse to discipline them for other obnoxious behaviours, like cheating and harassing tourists.  Large scale raids on farms by the authorities, like those that were happening in 2009/10/11, have eased right off and the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed than it was only a couple of years ago.  “But some people have worries, if they legalise maybe there will be no more hashish, maybe they will change our plants and make us grow for industry – how much money will this make for us?  It will be cheap, and if they make us grow big plants then we will have to spend money on fertiliser.  To grow plants for medicine can be good for this land, we have the skills, and we have the plants, but giant cannabis plants like you have in Europe would be crazy here.  This is crazy talk! 

Political recognition of the social and economic importance of cannabis here is good to see.  Its long over due, as is a change in the national laws, but will Morocco take a step towards corporate colonisation and the eradication of established skills and strains, or will it seek to build on the knowledge, expertise and genetic wealth of what already exists?