Morocco’s Cannabis Cultivation Stabilizes at 50,000 Hectares Despite Eradication Efforts

This result is the fruit of major eradication efforts over the past decade, going from 134,000 hectares recorded in 2003 to 47,000 hectares two years later, when the UN and the Moroccan government had jointly conducted a detailed study on the cultivated area, reports EFE.

Last year, the cultivated areas provided 713 tons of hashish, of which 117 tons were seized by the security forces, said sources present at the session of the National Narcotics Commission (Spain). These same sources report the difficulties of the Moroccan authorities to completely eradicate this culture and especially to find alternative crops for the farmers.

From a purely police point of view, they stressed the difficulties of Morocco to monitor the 3,500 kilometers of coastline 24 hours a day, and this is all the more illusory as the demand from Europe is constantly increasing.

EFE recalls that cannabis cultivation is mainly concentrated in the Rif mountains and the surrounding regions and supports 90,000 families, but the main beneficiaries are drug traffickers in Europe.