US EditionPublished • loading... • Updated
Morocco aims to boost legal cannabis farming and tap a global boom
Legal cannabis covers 14,300 acres in Morocco’s Rif Mountains, but illegal cultivation still dominates with 67,000 acres, posing ongoing challenges for integration.
- Last year, Morocco expanded legal cannabis cultivation and integrated longtime growers like Mohamed Makhlouf into licensed cooperatives in the Rif Mountains near Bab Berred.
- Since a 2021 law legalized certain cultivation, regulators enacted 2022 measures to lift small-scale farmers out of poverty and integrate the Rif Mountains, while King Mohammed VI pardoned over 4,800 growers in 2024.
- Official data shows the agency issued licenses last year to more than 3,371 licensed growers and recorded nearly 4,200 tons of legal cannabis, while the Biocannat cooperative buys from roughly 200 small farmers.
- Protests in Taounate highlighted unpaid promised payments after cooperatives failed to pay local farmers, while black-market demand remains high and illegal cannabis networks persist.
- Observers warn the legal market remains too small to absorb the hundreds of thousands in the Rif, and the Global Institute Against Transnational Organized Crime said the industry is 'more one of coexistence of both markets than a decisive transition.
Insights by Ground AI
41 Articles
41 Articles
Associated Press News+38 Reposted by 38 other sources
Morocco aims to boost legal cannabis farming and tap a global boom
Morocco has long been one of the world's top exporters of cannabis and in 2022 it became the first Muslim-majority country to legalize certain forms of cultivation.
·United States
Read Full Article
The world's largest cannabis producer is focusing on legalizing its crops. After decades of operating in the shadows, farmers in the Rif region can finally work without fear of arrest. Legalization brings new opportunities, but also challenges—the illegal market remains thriving, and farmers complain about difficulties receiving payments for their crops.
Morocco: legal cannabis comes out of the shadows ... The original version of this content comes from Le Cannabiste and was written by Francesca.
Coverage Details
Total News Sources41
Leaning Left20Leaning Right3Center11Last UpdatedBias Distribution59% Left
Bias Distribution
- 59% of the sources lean Left
59% Left
L 59%
C 32%
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
