RABAT: Morocco’s king has pardoned nearly 5,000 people convicted or wanted on charges linked to illegal cannabis cultivation, the justice ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Morocco is a major cannabis producer and has allowed the cultivation, export and use of the drug for medicine or in industry since 2021, but it does not allow it to be used for recreational purposes.
The pardon by King Mohammed VI would encourage farmers “to engage in the legal process of cannabis cultivation to improve their revenue and living conditions,” Mohammed El Guerrouj, head of Moroccan cannabis regulator ANRAC, told Reuters.
Morocco’s first legal cannabis harvest was 294 metric tons in 2023, according to official figures. Legal exports since 2023 so far stood at 225 kilograms, Guerrouj said.
This year it is expected to be higher as the number of farming permits increases and ANRAC allows the cultivation of the local strain known as Beldia.
Nearly a million people live in areas of northern Morocco where cannabis is the main economic activity. It has been publicly grown and smoked there for generations, mixed with tobacco in traditional long-stemmed pipes with clay bowls.
The 2021 legalization was intended to improve farmers’ incomes and protect them from drug traffickers who dominate the cannabis trade and export it illegally.
Morocco is also seeking to tap into a growing global market for legal cannabis, and awarded 54 export permits last year.
Morocco pardons nearly 5,000 cannabis farming convicts
https://arab.news/mzpy6
Morocco pardons nearly 5,000 cannabis farming convicts
- Morocco is a major cannabis producer and has allowed the cultivation, export and use of the drug for medicine
UN chief says those behind ‘unacceptable’ Homs attack must face justice
- France says the "terror" attack is designed to destabilize the country
UNITED NATIONS/PARIS: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the deadly attack on Friday prayers at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs, and said the perpetrators should be brought to justice.
“The Secretary-General reiterates that attacks against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable. He stresses that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The explosion killed at least eight worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Homs, with an Islamist militant group claiming responsibility.
France also condemned the attack, calling it an “act of terrorism” designed to destabilize the country.
The attack “is part of a deliberate strategy aimed at destabilizing Syria and the transition government,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
It condemned what it said was an attempt to “compromise ongoing efforts to bring peace and stability.”
The attack, during Friday prayers, was the second blast in a place of worship since Islamist authorities took power a year ago, after a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people in June.
In a statement on Telegram, the extremist group Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna said its fighters “detonated a number of explosive devices” in the Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque in the central Syrian city.
