« Time to reform marijuana laws | Main | Ted’s answers to the Cannabis Discussion Paper’s Questions »
Lebanon security begins destroying cannabis
By Hempology | July 23, 2002
BAALBEK, Lebanon – Lebanon’s army and security forces used bulldozers on Monday to rip up fields of cannabis plants in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
Bekaaa farmers say failed Bekaaa farmers say failed agricultural policies have driven them to grow
cannabis or marijuana. Dried leaves of the plant are often sold to be smoked as a drug. The resin
can be made into hashish, which is also smoked as a drug or put into baked goods such as cookies,
cakes and brownies.
Lebanese security officials said they would destroy 60 hectares planted with cannabis in northern
Lebanon and in the Bekaa, an impoverished agricultural region that is a stronghold of Lebanon’s
Hezbollah guerrilla movement.
The operation is the latest attempt to stamp out drug cultivation in the Bekaa, which became a center
of hashish and opium production during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war before postwar governments cracked
down on the trade.
But farmers last year planted the largest cannabis and opium crops in several years, citing the failure
of alternative crop schemes that accompanied the crackdown and which development specialists say have
been under-funded and focused on crops facing stiff competition from neighboring countries.
Topics: Articles | Comments Off
Comments are closed.