As reported by the Ministry of Justice, the King of Morocco Muhammad VI granted the grace to 4,831 people convicted, tried or wanted for cases related to cannabis cultivation.
An unprecedented maneuver, announced on the evening of August 19, which aims to implement the law approved by the Moroccan government, which in 2021 has authorized the production of cannabis for medical and industrial use.
The next step was to use further 47 thousand hectares of the Rif, a mountainous region in the north of the country, for the legal cultivation of cannabis. Whose first harvest, which took place in 2023, seems to have exceeded the well 294 tons.
Cannabis in Morocco: the main economic activity
Fighting illicit trafficking, positioning itself on the global market and opening up the Rif economically. These are the objectives pursued by Morocco, among the leading global manufacturers of cannabis for the UN.
Here cannabis is in fact part of a centuries-old tradition handed down from generation to generation, as well as the main source of livelihood for the thousands of families who populate the Rif.
And the sovereign's initiative "will allow these farmers and their families to live in serenity and tranquility and to participate in the new dynamic of legalization", he declared to Reuters Mohammed El Guerrouj, the director of the Agency for the National Regulation of Cannabis-related Activities (ANRAC).
He continues: "An important step on the path towards the gradual elimination of illicit crops through legalization or the introduction of alternative crops".
