Morocco Unveils Licensing Process for Legal Cannabis Cultivation

The Cannabis Law and its regulations provide the framework for legal access to cannabis and control and regulate its production, distribution and sale. Under this framework, a person must hold, in addition to an authorization, a license issued by the National Agency for the Regulation of Cannabis Activities (ANRARC) in order to carry out various activities related to cannabis.

The six decrees published at the beginning of this month in the official bulletin have lifted the veil on the different types of licenses according to the activities. We cite among others the license for cultivation and production, the export or import of cannabis seeds and plants, the processing and manufacture of cannabis and its derived products, or the transport of cannabis and its derived products. As for cultivation and production for example, the text entitled "procedures for issuing licenses for cannabis-related activities" explains that a license application file must be constituted, the documents of which have been specified.

This includes a copy of the applicant’s electronic national identity card with an updated address, a dated and signed license application by the applicant, one of the following three documents: a certificate of ownership of the land operated in the name of the license applicant or a document attesting that the owner of the land has given his authorization for the license applicant to grow cannabis, accompanied by a certificate proving that he is the owner, or a certificate issued by the local administrative authority proving the applicant’s operation of the land in question.

The file to be presented must also include a document proving the applicant’s membership in one of the cooperatives listed in Article 7 of Law No. 13.21, or his commitment to do so before obtaining a license to carry out this activity and finally the design of the plot of land concerned, with its coordinates in ampere, carried out by a surveyor engineer registered in the register of the National Order of Surveyor Engineers.