Time.news – The Moroccan Parliament has given the definitive green light to legalization of cannabis for therapeutic and industrial uses. Recreational use remains prohibited but the reform will allow tens of thousands of families, mostly concentrated in the north of the country, to enter the legal economy, who live off the cultivation of hemp, currently mostly destined for the drug market.
The text was approved by the House in second reading with 61 votes in favor and 25 against. The Minister of the Interior, Abdeluafi Laftit, expressed satisfaction with the green light for an “urgent” measure. The law provides for the creation of anational agency which will monopolize the commercialization of cannabis and control all stages of cultivation and production. Growers will have to form state-authorized cooperatives.
It is estimated that at least 400,000 people live off cannabis cultivation in Morocco, which is the first world producer of hashish. The government estimates that legalization will lead to a turnover of 20 billion euros by 2028, with Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany as the main markets.
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