Belgian Tourist Witnesses Illegal Cannabis Cultivation in Morocco’s Rif Region

"It was my personal consumption of cannabis that prompted me to go to Morocco. I wanted to see the day I consumed the resin. See and know," he confides to La Dernière Heure, stressing that he does not encourage the consumption of this drug. The Anderlechtois had visited the Chefchaouen and Ketama region, in the province of Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima, a region that he says produces "the top of the top", the "caviar of hashish": the "frozen", also called the "filtered" or the "static". François returned enlightened from this trip to Morocco where he saw "hundreds of hectares" of cannabis plantations in the Rif mountains, some of them at over 2,000 meters altitude.

In this region, cannabis cultivation is free, he claims, admitting that he did not witness any police intervention during his three stays. "We see units of the Royal Gendarmerie circulating on the main roads. But they do not venture into the village flanks and have no view of the fields. They leave the jbala who cultivate and produce in peace." François said he was impressed by these tens of thousands of hectares of cannabis plantations that stretch as far as the eye can see. "At the end of the season, around mid-September, they form expanses of bushes from which the characteristic odor of the plant emanates. And the gendarmes let it go."

"The farmers I met are extremely welcoming and warm, but I quickly understood that there are questions not to be asked about the arrangements they have with the authorities. The Moroccan authorities are not blind. So there necessarily have to be arrangements for the gendarmes to look the other way on the plantations, don’t they," develops the Anderlechtois who was able to witness the transformation of cannabis, from the fields to the packaging. "They have large infrastructures, with quasi-industrial cold rooms where the temperature drops to minus 25 degrees, similar to those in our butcher shops," he reports, noting that the activity employs abundant labor.

For the farmers of the Rif, growing cannabis is something natural. "They have been cultivating it for centuries. They do not feel they are making an illegal product," explains François, who recalls that cannabis cultivation is strictly prohibited in Morocco. The young Belgian "has an exceptional memory of the kindness of the families who welcomed me with open arms." According to UN data, Morocco produced 23,000 tons of marijuana and 800 tons of resin in 2021, becoming one of the world’s leading suppliers of cannabis. Some 140,000 people, or even 400,000 according to some sources, would live from this activity.