Morocco pardons 4,800 for cannabis offences
Cannabis supplied income for up to120,000 families in 2019
The largest cannabis producer in the world is aiming to facilitate legal farming of cannabis and export it for medical or industrial intents.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has exonerated almost 4,800 people who were sentenced, charged or wanted on charges connected with illegal cannabis cultivation, the justice ministry announced in a recent statement.
The pardon will allow those involved in illegal cannabis cultivation "to integrate the new strategy," the ministry statement said.
Mohammed El Guerrouj, the head of the Moroccan cannabis regulator Anrac described the decision as "an important step on the path to the gradual elimination of illicit cultivation through legalisation or the introduction of alternative crops."
"This is an exceptional initiative that will allow these farmers and their families to live in serenity and tranquillity, and to participate in the new dynamic of legalisation."
Anrac was established in 2022 in line with the new law and has documented a huge surge in cannabis-related licences allocated since the beginning of 2024.
The agency noted in August that it had consented to almost 3,000 licences, which is an enormous boost from the 609 permits that were issued in 2023, as reported in the World Morocco News.
Although the 2021 law maintains a ban on the recreational use of cannabis, Morocco, in 2024, is still the biggest supplier of cannabis resin in Europe's illegal cannabis market, according to the European Union Drugs Agency and Europol. The North African country is also named as the world's foremost producer of cannabis, according to the UN.
In 2021, the government assumed a new law that legalised the production of the plant for medicinal and industrial uses in the rural regions in the north-eastern Rif province to help farmers.
Cannabis has been cultivated in this impoverished and bypassed mountainous region for centuries and supplied an income for as many as 80,000 - 120,000 families in 2019, by official estimates.
The law also aims to prevent the illegal trafficking of drugs by cartels that monopolise the trade and export of cannabis.
The pardon will permit those currently implicated in illicit cannabis cultivation to integrate themselves into the new system.
The king’s decision is viewed as a significant stage on the journey to the eventual elimination of illegal cultivation via regulation and introduction alternative crops.
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