Morocco set to legalise cannabis production for medical use

By Reuters Staff / Reuters

Morocco plans to allow the farming, export and domestic sale of cannabis for medical and industrial use, the government said on Thursday, a move it hopes will help impoverished farmers in the Rif mountains amid a growing legal global market for the drug.

Past attempts to legalise cannabis farming in Morocco have failed, but the co-ruling PJD party, the largest in parliament, dropped its opposition after the U.N. drug agency removed the plant from its list of most tightly controlled narcotic drugs.

The bill, which the cabinet is expected to approve next week, aims to improve farmers’ incomes, protect them from drug traffickers who now control the trade in cannabis and gain access to the booming legal international market for the drug.

Cannabis is mostly grown in the northern Rif mountains, which in recent years have seen protests over economic inequality.