Beqaa farmers persist in cannabis cultivation for lack of alternative sources of livelihoods

In a special feature published today, Al Akhbar newspaper portrayed the struggle of the Beqaa ‎cannabis growers to protect their summer harvest, noting that after four seasons, crops remained ‎intact. Nowadays, these farmers are resuming the cultivation of thousands of acres with this ‎banned crop, hopeful to receive attention from their government. To expound on the subject, the ‎newspaper spoke to one cannabis grower who confirmed that such precious plantations are a ‎support and assurance for hundreds of Beqaa farmers and their families. “The Lebanese ‎government does not get it, that we are growers and not dealers. He who grows the crop is ‎originally destitute and no one cares about him. The grower wants to provide for his household ‎and see his children educated and married,” he said. Another cannabis farmer, Hassan, in his ‎fifties, praised the flowering crop that “never loses” as he described it, contrary to other ‎conventional plants which face many challenges, in the forefront, water scarcity. This, Hassan ‎explained, has caused a high demand and an increase in the rent cost of water-rich lands, coupled ‎with a rise in labor cost and a monopoly by traders, in the absence of marketing outlets and ‎government backing. Likewise, a fellow marijuana grower, lamented through Al Akhbar the lies ‎and false promises of the government about an alternative agriculture project. “They lied to us ‎even after the formal visit by former interior minister, Marwan Sharbel, to Yamooneh town back ‎in 2012 after the promises he made to this effect”. In conclusion, the newspaper called attention ‎to the fact that cannabis farmers are hopeful of legalizing the crop, similar to the tobacco crop, ‎which once was illegal. “Why does the government authorize the cultivation of tobacco which is ‎very detrimental to the health of citizens, while it continues to ban cannabis which essentially ‎contains medicinal and industrial benefits” they wondered. (Al Akhbar, July 4, 2016)‎