Tag: morocco

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Morocco Moves Forward On Medical Cannabis Implementation

Written by Marguerite Arnold on March 8, 2022. Posted in Business, Politics.

The North African country allows medical and industrial hemp cultivation but only in three northern states

Yet another African country has now moved forward with some form of cannabis legalization. Morocco’s cabinet adopted a draft decree last Thursday allowing cultivation, under strict regulations and control – amending parts of the country’s cannabis law in the process.

Morocco changed its law to allow for the cultivation of medical cannabis in August 2021 and established a regulatory agency that is responsible for the oversight of the cultivation, export, and sale of the plant.

It is still illegal to consume cannabis for recreational purposes in Morocco.

The new decree assigns responsibility for supporting applicants and other stakeholders to the National Agency for the Legalization of Cannabis-related Activities. The agency will establish a procedure for monthly reporting on cannabis cultivation, seed production and stock and an annual inventory from each nursery. Other agencies, including the

That said, the new legislation also strictly limits reform to three states – all found in the north of the country. Al Hoceima, Chefchaoen and Taounate were the three initial areas chosen. This does not rule out the possibility of allowing cultivation in other provinces – depending on the demand of national and international investors.

A Major Provider of Illicit Cannabis Goes Legit

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Morocco was the world’s top producer of illicit cannabis in 2019.

The legalization of the market here will probably begin to impact that trade – although of course as even Canada has learned, even full recreational reform does not eliminate at least the grey market. It may impact the amount of hash now found in the black market across Europe, starting with Spain.

Morocco will certainly benefit more if such activities can be turned into legitimate income. It would allow the country to begin competing for at least the European medical market, which already has the attention of countries further south (including South Africa and Lesotho).

Obtaining investment for the sector now is obviously critical. It remains to be seen if the country can attract both domestic and foreign income for the purpose of developing its cannabis market.

Morocco becomes the 4th country in Africa, after Lesotho, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, to attempt to regulate their cannabis sector. So far, however, they remain the only African country to attempt to limit legal cultivation in a certain area of the country.

See you at the International Cannabis Business Conference in Barcelona this week! Be sure to book your tickets to our upcoming conferences in Berlin and Zurich too!

Three Provinces Selected To Cultivate Legal Cannabis In Morocco

Written by Johnny Green on March 6, 2022. Posted in Business.

It is no secret that Morocco is home to some of the best hash on earth. It is also no secret that a lot of that hash, and even domestic cannabis flower, is smuggled out of Morocco and transported to other countries, including and especially Spain.

Much like other countries that are well-known for cannabis, Morocco has worked in recent years to try to bring its unregulated industry into the legal arena. That is never an easy task when so much of the country’s economic structure is built around an unregulated, illegal trade.

Morocco’s emerging legal cannabis industry passed a major milestone this week when industry regulators published a list of regions that have been selected to cultivate cannabis legally. Per North Africa Post:

A new step forward in the legalization of cannabis cultivation in Morocco was made Thursday as the government adopted at its weekly meeting a decree regulating the activities related to the culture of the plant and selected three provinces, namely Al Hoceima, Chefchaouen and Taounate that will grow cannabis legally.

This decree, drafted by the Ministry of the Interior in coordination with the ministerial departments concerned, is part of the completion of the application of the law that was adopted in May 2021.

Ultimately, the text will subject all activities related to the cultivation, production, processing, transport, marketing, export and import of cannabis and its by-products to a licensing system.

Make no mistake – Morocco’s illegal cannabis industry is not going anywhere, at least not any time soon. Cannabis is cultivated all over Morocco, and people that cannot obtain a license will likely continue to go about their business as usual.

With that being said, it is still very much worth celebrating the selection of provinces for legal cultivation. It’s a major step in the right direction, and hopefully licensing will be extended to the rest of the country sooner rather than later.

Global demand for cannabis products from Morocco is significant, especially in countries where cannabis cultivation is difficult to do at an elite level. If Morocco can get its legal industry infrastructure in place and embraces the cannabis industry versus only tolerating it, it will reap enormous financial rewards in the coming years.

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Morocco Passes Medical Cannabis Use Legislation

Written by Marguerite Arnold on June 23, 2021. Posted in Medical.

The African country passes highly controversial legislation in part to create sustainable agriculture for its citizens

Bill number 13.21 passed the Moroccan Parliament in the first week of June. The bill had been highly contentious all the way through passage, both domestically and right next door in Algeria. Regardless, medical cannabis is now legal in another country in Africa which hopes to capitalize on at least medical reform to provide incomes for its farmers.

Indeed, Interior Minister Abdel-Wafi Laftit, who introduced the bill, called on both domestic and international organizations, including the UN, to integrate the development of the drug for the benefit of sustainable economic development in the most impoverished parts of the country.

Cannabis In Africa

The entire topic of cannabis in Africa has been one that has moved forward in fits and starts depending on where one is.

In South Africa and Lesotho (which is surrounded by the larger country), medical cannabis reform has proceeded over the last several years to the point that multiple firms have now begun certified cultivation and are proceeding through the certification processes for at least export if not a bit more than that – particularly on the hemp front.

Uganda has already exported cannabis to Israel.

Zimbabwe’s government has also just changed the law to allow private investors, including those from overseas, to own 100% of their investments without any forced government participation and ownership.

Cannabis has come (back) to Africa.

Implications

There are many implications for the development of the plant in the African continent – and further that go beyond just direct investment in production.

The first is the development of low water and energy production methods.

The second is the discovery of new Landrace cannabis strains.

How specific countries develop their cannabis production and extraction pipelines both for domestic consumption and export even within Africa is another discussion – but further one that at this point is well underway.

So is the export of cannabis to Europe (which has already begun even if in small trickles) – both in terms of raw product – and beyond that – inexpensive flower and even extract bound for markets still starved for affordable product.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the International Cannabis Business Conference – which returns to Berlin in August!

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Morocco: The Next Country Cannabis Domino To Fall

Written by Marguerite Arnold on March 3, 2021. Posted in Politics.

A bill to legalize medical cannabis is widely expected to pass in Morocco this week after multiple previous attempts at reform have failed

As Reuters reported last weekend, the African country of Morocco plans to pass a bill this week to allow for the farming, export and domestic sale of cannabis for medical and industrial use.

The idea is to use such revenue to help impoverished farmers in the Rif mountains.

Although this legislation will finally legalize cannabis in the country, Morocco is no stranger to the cannabis plant. Indeed, the country has been one of the top global producers of the illicit variety according to the UN. In December, Morocco was one of the countries to vote for the removal of cannabis from Schedule IV classification internationally.

The Impact on Europe

The change in this North African country’s drug policies could have potentially huge knock-on effects in several places, starting with Europe – and not just in helping to stem the illicit cannabis and hash flows north into the region from Morocco. Legalization of the cultivation and trade routes will do much to clean up corruption and the violent black market that has long also been associated with the same.

However, what it will also do is introduce a huge potential source of at least raw cannabis that can then be processed in Europe, even if it is not grown there. If not introduce

The implications as a result, both for the medical market as well as the industrial one is large.

Cannabis as High-Value Cash Crop

As countries in Europe continue to set official prices along the supply chain (see most recently Portugal’s point of sale medical pricing), it means that the hunt for high-quality cannabis at price points that can only be created with less than Northern European labour rates will rev up to a new urgency. Particularly as countries like Germany also begin to establish in-country extraction facilities.

Even so, cannabis is certainly likely to remain a cash crop with a premium that beats most other kinds of agriculture. For that reason, poor farmers everywhere, including places like Morocco, stand to benefit.

While growing cannabis legally of course is not a panacea, anywhere, for embedded social and economic problems, creating legitimate cultivation markets for it is also proving to be good for starting to address some of them.

Be sure to book your tickets now for the upcoming International Cannabis Business Conference events in Austin Texas and Berlin Germany!