MADRID, 5 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of Morocco has issued the first ten permits for farmers to legally grow cannabis for industrial and export purposes, after the ratification in June 2021 of the measure that legalizes the cultivation and marketing of cannabis for medicinal and industrial use .
The National Agency for the Regulation of Activities Related to Cannabis (ANRAC) has confirmed the issuance of licenses just a few days after Mohamed el Gherruj took office as interim director of the agency, as reported by the Moroccan newspaper ‘Le Matin’.
Thus, he has stressed that this decision is part of the provisions of Law 13-21 on the legal use of cannabis and has highlighted that he will proceed to the authorization of other farmers in the ‘regulatory perimeter’, located between the provinces of Alhucemas, Chefchaouen and Taunate, within the framework of a process of reconversion of crops towards a “licit culture”.
The Moroccan Interior Minister, Abdeluafi Laftit, defended during the parliamentary approval process of the law that it seeks to open “development opportunities” in the cannabis cultivation areas in the African country, one of the largest producers of this drug in world level.
The production and commercialization of cannabis, centered mainly in the Rif area, has been illegal for years, which has caused the flourishing of illegal trafficking networks, which also affect Spain. The Rif has been the epicenter of protests in recent years against economic inequality and high unemployment.
