Morocco Plans To Eradicate Centuries Old Production Of Cannabis By 2008

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Rabat, Morocco (AHN) - Moroccan officials say they are winning their war on drugs, which includes battling both drug growers as well as drug users. The African nation recently known as the world's largest supplier of hashish has cut its cannabis crop by 50 percent in the past three years, says United Nations United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Moroccan government officials say they will do better, they plan to eradicate all marijuana production by 2008. That is no easy task given the fact that the drug, known as 'Kif' there, has been grown in the Moroccan mountains since the 15th century.

To get growers attention in the prime growing areas of the craggy Rif mountain region entire villages of people were sent to jail for growing the crop. Many farmers got the message and were only to happy to replace cannabis plants with olive trees.

But there have been attempts to replace the lucrative cannabis crop with less lucrative food crops in the past.

"It's not a question of replacing cannabis with apples, vines or avocados. The question is replacing the incredibly dynamic economy of cannabis, with an equally dynamic economy - that is also legal," Abdeslam Dahmane, from the development agency Targa, told BBC news. Dahmane works closely with the U.N. agency.

Khalid Zerouali from the Moroccan Interior Ministry told the BBC that cutting the supply alone wouldn't work.

"But we need also to master the demand. Last year about 22 million people consumed cannabis in Europe. That makes it very difficult," Zerouali told BBC.

It makes it difficult because the income from producing and selling the cannabis to meet that demand makes it worth the risk of being caught.

Part of that income is believed to end up in the hands of groups that fund terrorism. Some intelligence analysts think the militant group that bombed trains in Madrid in 2004 was funded by cannabis trafficking.

In the meantime the United Nations Population Fund and the Moroccan Ministry of Health have teamed up to do what they can to cut some of the demand for cannabis, at least in that part of the world. They hosted a colloquium aimed at curbing drug use earlier this month with the participation of youth representatives from 27 Arab and African states.



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Source: All Headline News
Author: Linda Young
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[DankCloset]

there is no way to wipe that shit off the face of the earth, each year they will get more growth. lovely how this planet works

[Cozmo]

^^^ Ya look how long they have been trying to eradicate our beautiful plant from this planet and its still growing strong everywhere.

Long Live The Herb!!