Morocco cuts hashish production

2007-02-27 16:38

Madrid - Drought and an efficient anti-drug campaign have drastically cut hashish production in Morocco, the world's biggest producer of the drug until now, said a United Nations (UN) report quoted on Tuesday by the Spanish daily El Pais.

The production of the resin of cannabis, the plant from which hashish is made, declined by 62% to 1 066 tons in 2005, according to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has not yet been made public.

The cannabis cultivation area was reduced by 42% to 72 500 hectares.

The report attributed the decline to weather conditions and to efforts by the authorities, who issued warnings to cannabis farmers and even destroyed their crops.

Cannabis is cultivated in northern Morocco. The anti-drug campaign has been most successful in Larache and Taunate provinces, which do not have such an old cannabis tradition as the heart of the Rif Mountains.

Moroccan interior minister Chakib Benmoussa said: "No other (hashish) producing country in the world has made so many efforts and achieved so much success."

He called on Europe to cut down the demand for hashish to "consolidate this success".

In the whole of Africa, however, the amount of cannabis seized increased from 16% to 30% of the world total in a decade, says the report.

- SAPA