Jumblat calls for legalizing cannabis cultivation amidst mixed reactions

Following his tweet last December to legalize the cultivation of cannabis in Lebanon and rescind arrest warrants of related suspects, MP Walid Jumblat reiterated in an interview with L’Orient Le Jour two days ago the importance of legalizing the growing of this crop and regulating its consumption. While praising the medical uses of ‘hashish’ and its effective contribution to economic growth, Jumblat stressed that such a move is the only solution to improve the living conditions in Baalbek and Hermel area. He recalled the failure of the policies of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and United Nation plans to develop alternative crops. On this subject, the newspaper spoke to an agriculture engineer from Hermel, Juhaina Dandash, who while objecting to the cultivation of cannabis, emphasized that they presented the only option. Dandash said she planted potato, lettuce and almonds but was not very successful this year in marketing her production due to many reasons, primarily, fierce competition by foreign products, such as Egyptian potato, and the absence of clear government policies. As for alternative crops like sunflower, almond, hazelnuts and saffron, she noted that they are not figure among the priorities of government and therefore do not receive the needed marketing support. In a similar note, one Beqaa farmer expressed his support to the growing of cannabis in the absence of a sustainable agriculture development strategy, the high labor costs, unfair competition and total government neglect of farmers and huge losses incurred over the past years. On the other side, the President of the Farmers’ Grouping in Beqaa, Ibrahim Tarshishi expressed his strong opposition to cannabis cultivation while questioning the criteria on which Jumblat based his arguments. He also criticized the baffling public policies in tacitly condoning then hunting hashish producers. (L’Orient Le Jour, 15 & 16 April 2015)