Morocco pardons over 4,800 cannabis cultivation offenders

Moroccan King Mohammed VI has pardoned nearly 4,800 people convicted, prosecuted or wanted for illegal cannabis cultivation, the Justice Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The pardon is aimed at encouraging farmers “to participate in the legal process of cannabis cultivation in order to improve their income and living conditions,” Mohammed El Guerrouj, head of Morocco’s cannabis regulator Anrac, told Reuters.

“This is an exceptional initiative that will allow these farmers and their families to live in peace and tranquility and will contribute to the new dynamics of legalisation,” El Guerrouj told AFP.

According to the United Nations, the North African country is the largest producer of cannabis in the world.

In 2021, the government passed a law legalizing the cultivation of the plant for medicinal and industrial purposes in rural provinces in the northeastern Rif region to support farmers.

In this poor and neglected mountainous region, cannabis has been cultivated for centuries. According to official estimates, the plant supported the livelihoods of 80,000 to 120,000 families in 2019.

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The law also aims to combat the illegal drug trade, which dominates the trade and export of the plant.

The pardon will allow those involved in the illegal cultivation of cannabis to “integrate into the new strategy,” the ministry’s statement said.

El Guerrouj described the king’s decision as “an important step towards the gradual eradication of illegal cultivation through legalization or the introduction of alternative crops.”

Anrac, founded in 2022 as part of the new law, reports a staggering increase in the number of cannabis licenses since the beginning of 2024.

The agency reported in August that it had approved nearly 3,000 permits, a dramatic increase from the 609 permits issued in 2023, World Morocco News reported.

Although the 2021 law maintains a ban on the recreational use of cannabis, Morocco remains the largest supplier of cannabis resin to the European market for illicit cannabis sales in 2024, according to the European Drug Agency and Europol.