Moroccan cannabis farmers face ruin

[DoYouEverWonder]

08 March 2006

The dark green, fern-like plant has spread across the mountainous Rif region in Morocco's northeast as hashish smoking went from marginal to almost mainstream among young Europeans.

The government's crackdown on the cannabis industry - estimated to be worth $12 billion - was given a shot in the arm by suspicions that hashish was used to partly pay for dynamite that blew up trains in Madrid in 2004, killing 191 people.

Muslim activists claimed the Madrid attacks in the name of al-Qaida, and Moroccans were implicated in the bombings.

The government of the North African kingdom says it intends to eradicate cannabis production by 2008, and the area used to grow the drug shrank by 10% in 2004, according to the International Narcotics Control Board.

But in the Rif, where two-thirds of farmers grow cannabis, people say more should be done to help them develop new sources of income.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=102

See, now pot causes terrorism.

[rfranklin]

1. Didn't cocaine finance the Reagan-Bush terrorism in Central America?

It seems it was okay then.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Only because it was illegal

and therefore they can make lots of money from it.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Doesn't the harvest and sale of poppies in Afghanistan financially assist

the Taliban?

[Chemical Bill]

13. If so...

why did they ban it in 2000?

http://opioids.com/afghanistan/


And why did the cultivation go up when we took over?

http://opioids.com/afghanistan/opium-economy.html

Hmmm, opium in SE Asia during the Vietnam War. Cocaine in South America during the '80s. Opium in Afghanistan now. Do I detect a pattern? It seems that wherever the CIA is operating, somebody is running drugs.

Naaaa, must be coincidence! ;)

Bill

[High Plains]

19. The Taliban banned opium production in 2000 for two reasons:

1. To win some brownie points in international diplomacy.

2. Because of a glut in the market from big harvests in Afghanistan in previous years.

Cultivation went up when we took over because there was/is no effective central government. And now some of the warlords and traffickers are part of the Karzai government.

The CIA has indeed worked with drug traffickers at various times, but I don't think this is one of them. Could be wrong, though.

By the way, the UN expects another bumper crop this year.

[Skeptor]

3. Why a new source of income?

The stuff's brilliant for fibre manufacture. Mixed with recycled paper, it makes a beautiful pale green-gold office paper. Mixed with resin, it makes car bodies tougher than aluminum and at a fraction of the energy cost/CO2 production. As medicine, cannabis has as many applications as, with no worse side-effects than, aspirin. But what am I thinking - policy decisions nowadays are rational? What a dope!

[ronatchig]

5. As an oil also

We should not forget that hemp oil derived from hemp seed is not only a great cooking oil but also a source for fuel.
Hemp also thrives on marginal to poor soil with much less fertilizer required than other bio oil sources.

The only people harmed by MJ legalization are the drug warriors themselves. Man and marijuana have evolved together and we are incomplete without this sacred herb.

[EuroObserver]

14. Hemp should be cultivated everywhere

... and employed in myriad ways ...

[formercia]

6. Take the profit margin away

Big money is why. Decriminalizing possession would kill the foreign producers within a year.

[Bridget Burke]

7. Why kill the foreign producers?

Why not let them sell their product on the free market--not under the counter with crooks?

[formercia]

9. I advocated decriminalizing posession, not trafficking.

Just like tobacco, even though few do it, individuals are allowed to grow small quantities for their own use without penalty.

[Bridget Burke]

16. Why not encourage the Afghanis to grow marijuana instead of poppies?

They used to produce some wonderful hashish. We have "free trade" coffee, in which the producer gets a bigger share than the middle man. Why not free trade hash?

I'd love to grow my own, but would be glad for occasional access to something special.

[formercia]

17. I had an Iranian friend that used to go to Afghanistan

to buy hemp seeds. It's a local snack. They roast and salt them, much like we eat peanuts. She said they had bricks of Hash stacked like cordwood.
A paramilitary officer I worked with told me the Afghanis were a pain to get to do anything after any successful attack against the Soviets. They would get wacked on Hash and party for weeks afterwards. Pretty useless bunch for the most part.

[Bosso 63]

8. Doesn't al-Qaida get is it's money from the sale of oil?

What would happen if we eradicated the production and sale of oil? I'm just asking?

[bemildred]

10. I dunno.

Is this going to work like the poppy eradiction in Afghanistan or the Coca eradication in Latin America? In that case we can expect a decline in the price of hash and a large increase in supply.

[Javaman]

11. call me crazy, but I don't see people all high on pot wanting to blow...

things up...

I know, I know, it's the sale of the pot they are talking about.

Just a funny thought. :crazy:

[psychopomp]

12. Even if they wanted to, they would

"just do it tomorrow."

j/k

peace to the smokahs

[Chemical Bill]

15. Yeah, we could fight terrorists ...

by giving them Doritos. They'd stop what they were doing and pig out. ;)

Bill

[formercia]

21. People who smoke a lot of pot

give a shit for the most part. The government can't control potheads with propaganda because, to them, it's a joke.

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. Here's the correct link

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EE669754-D85F-447B-8694-7C1290086412.htm

Sorry about the oops in the first post.

[phusion]

20. Sounds a lot like Plan Colombia...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030818/clark

Three years ago this summer, President Clinton signed a $1.3 billion spending bill for "Plan Colombia," aimed at curbing violence in Colombia and drug abuse in the United States. Don't expect festive anniversary celebrations this summer, though, in either the barrios and rural villages of Colombia or the overburdened drug rehab centers here. The Bush Administration has invoked the ubiquitous terrorism justification to try to keep this floundering policy going, but concerns are mounting.

The bulk of the 2000 aid package paid for helicopters and training for a Colombian counterdrug brigade, as well as spray planes to fumigate fields of coca, the raw ingredient in the cocaine that provides some of the guerrillas' funding. The policy objectives have not been met, but Congress has provided hundreds of millions of dollars more each year and extended the plan's mission.

Colombia is home to three groups classified as terrorists: the left-wing FARC and ELN guerrillas and the pro-government AUC paramilitaries. It took only eight months after 9/11 for Congress to expand US engagement from fighting drugs to "a unified campaign against narcotics trafficking against activities by organizations designated as terrorist organizations." On the grounds of fighting terrorism, seventy Special Forces troops were sent to Arauca province in January to begin training Colombian soldiers to hunt down guerrillas and protect an oil pipeline partly owned by Occidental Petroleum.