According to various international agencies, including the UN and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Morocco is one of the world’s largest producers of cannabis and the biggest supplier of illegal by-products such as hashish that are bound for the EU.
It is hard to know whether the draft law will pass, Khalid Mouna, an associate anthropology professor at Moulay Ismail University in Meknes, northern Morocco, told DW.
This time could be different, said Tom Blickman, a researcher on international drugs policy for the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute.
The World Health Organization has recommended that cannabis be removed from a list of dangerous drugs so that medical usage can be researched.
The UN vote, which saw the motion passed by a narrow margin, cleared the way for Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit to introduce the draft law on cannabis legalization in Parliament in April.
Most of the country’s cannabis comes from the economically depressed Rif region in the north, where farms are an open secret.
If cannabis were legalized, “Morocco would be ideally positioned to reap a huge influx in investment toward the infrastructure necessary to serve its lucrative market,” a 2019 report by cannabis market research company New Frontier Data concluded.
Morocco also has “a unique advantage, just being so close to the European market,” John Kagia, New Frontier Data’s chief knowledge officer, told DW.
A senior member of the Moroccan Justice and Development Party , Abdelilah Benkirane, also a former prime minister, suspended his membership in the conservative, Islamist party this month.
For example, the legalization of cannabis farming may cause operations to set up in regions more suitable for agriculture, and farmers in the north want to restrict future growing to areas where the crop has historically been tended.
At first, alternative development meant finding other sources of income for farmers who had been involved in growing illicit drug crops, such as bananas, cocoa, coffee, livestock or even fish.
Most of the countries that are currently trying to legalize cannabis cultivation plan to export to Europe, he said.