Drug traffickers in eastern Lebanon are watching with concern proposals to legislate the cultivation of cannabis, since the bills submitted by politicians will put an end to their influence. The legalization process will prevent illegal trafficking and will change the quality of the plant in which the hallucinogenic substances will diminish for medical purposes.
Moreover, drug dealers will be deprived of the cannabis harvest, which will go directly to the pharmaceutical companies.
Proposals to legislate cannabis cultivation for medical purposes emerged last month, based on plans that are expected to provide material revenues that contribute to the development of the northern Bekaa region.
The plans were widely welcomed by the residents of the Bekaa Valley, although the official proposals, most notably a proposal made the a member of the Powerful Republic bloc, MP Antoine Habshi, calls for changing the type of the plant that is currently grown in the Bekaa Valley.
Habshi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the proposal submitted late last month “will not legalize drugs in Lebanon, meaning that they will not be available in the markets. Instead, alternative agriculture will be used for medical purposes.”
He explained that the proposal was not to legislate the current seedlings planted in Lebanon, which are hybrid plants that contain high levels of hallucinogenic substances and narcotics, but to introduce new seedlings, and will oblige pharmaceutical companies to monitor their cultivation according to specific criteria.
Habshi stressed that the bill “will put a final end to the role of drug traffickers.”
Member of the Baalbek-Hermel parliamentary bloc MP Walid Sukkarieh has a different point of view. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said: “I have a personal opinion on this subject apart from that of the bloc. I am against the cultivation of anything called drugs, for the simple reason that we have no controls in Lebanon; but if things go towards legislation, I will not stand in the way.”
Experts believe that the Bekaa region produces a good type of cannabis for the pharmaceutical industry. In 2013, a number of experiments were carried out by international organizations for the purpose of positive cultivation of cannabis for medical uses. Around 400,000 square meters were cultivated in cooperation with farmers. As the success of the experiment and the quality of the plant were proven, a study proposed the establishment of five manufacturing units, each of them capable of securing 300 jobs.
However, according to official sources in the Bekaa, the study “is left in the drawers of the chamber of commerce and industry in Zahle.”
