Moroccan cannabis production drops

Morocco is reported to have the world's largest marijuana crop, worth billions of dollars in exports to nearby Europe from the north-western African country. Middlemen based in Europe are estimated to have made a net profit of U.S. $12 billion three years ago from the trade, with
many in the Moroccan part of the supply chain also gaining handsomely.

But drought and a government campaign to eradicate the crop have seen production drop by almost half in the last three years.The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime has found that the area of the Rif region planted with cannabis had fallen to around 70 000 hectares from 130 000 in 2003.

Cannabis grows well even in poor soil and has come to be known as "green gold" because it offers a way out of grinding poverty for thousands of families. Forty years ago it found only in the remotest mountain areas, but it has gradually spread across the entire region and west to the
Atlantic coast as demand from Europe has soared. Smugglers hide hashish in containers and trucks or use speedboats to ship it as far as Barcelona in Spain or Marseille in France.

The next step in sustaining the reduction in the cannabis grown is convincing farmers in the poor northern region to seek other livelihoods. This needs heavy support from the European Union, said Bernard Leroy, a legal advisor at the UNODC office. "If peasants don't see the support coming they will go back to farming cannabis." He said there was a risk that there would be little E.U. interest in providing such support, given that cannabis had become so prevalent there and governments might not see it as a priority.

The longer-term solution lies in creating alternative crops and bringing new jobs by ending rural isolation and encouraging tourism and industry. "We need to finance eradication and put in place a programme of substitution. We need to avoid the situation where you launch a programme
but it doesn't bring enough results to help the peasants," said Leroy. He said Morocco had a strong reputation as a producer of olives, and surging demand for olive oil could offer the Rif an alternative to cannabis.

The Moroccan government has declared its aim to eradicate cannabis production by 2008.