Morocco’s parliament voted to legalize the local cultivation of cannabis for medicinal and industrial use, in a potential victory for marginalized farmers in the world’s top exporter of the drug.
Morocco, where tens of thousands of people live off illegal marijuana cultivation, has debated legalization for around a decade, with advocates saying it would allow farmers to sell to the government rather than to drug traffickers.
They found a powerful new ally in the interior ministry after 2017, when a major bout of unrest in the underdeveloped northern region of Rif exposed long-ignored socioeconomic grievances. Rif accounts for a large share of the 183 square miles planted with cannabis in the North African kingdom, and it is hoped that legalization will defuse tensions by ending the fugitive status of farmers there as well as providing economic relief.
A total 119 lawmakers cast ballots in favor of legalization and 48 against, the head of the chamber’s finance and economic affairs committee, Abdellah Bouanou, said by telephone. His Justice and Development Party, or PJD — Islamists who lead the kingdom’s coalition government — voted against the bill.
King Mohammed VI has to approve the legislation before it can take effect. Recreational use, sale and production will remain illegal.
The global market for medicinal cannabis and cannabis-related products has boomed in recent years as a growing number of countries move away from outright prohibition of the plant whose…
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Morocco’s parliament voted to legalize the local cultivation of cannabis for medicinal and industrial use, in a potential victory for marginalized farmers in the world’s top exporter of the drug.
Morocco, where tens of thousands of people live off illegal marijuana cultivation, has debated legalization for around a decade, with advocates saying it would allow farmers to sell to the government rather than to drug traffickers.
They found a powerful new ally in the interior ministry after 2017, when a major bout of unrest in the underdeveloped northern region of Rif exposed long-ignored socioeconomic grievances. Rif accounts for a large share of the 183 square miles planted with cannabis in the North African kingdom, and it is hoped that legalization will defuse tensions by ending the fugitive status of farmers there as well as providing economic relief.
A total 119 lawmakers cast ballots in favor of legalization and 48 against, the head of the chamber’s finance and economic affairs committee, Abdellah Bouanou, said by telephone. His Justice and Development Party, or PJD — Islamists who lead the kingdom’s coalition government — voted against the bill.
King Mohammed VI has to approve the legislation before it can take effect. Recreational use, sale and production will remain illegal.
The global market for medicinal cannabis and cannabis-related products has boomed in recent years as a growing number of countries move away from outright prohibition of the plant whose…
