- Title: Lebanese cannabis farmers hope legalisation may bring amnesty
- Date: 27th August 2018
- Summary: YAMMOUNEH, LEBANON (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CANNABIS FIELD IN YAMMOUNEH NEAR LAKE CANNABIS PLANTS CANNABIS FARMER, ABU MOHAMMAD WALKING IN FIELD CANNABIS PLANT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CANNABIS FARMER, ABU MOHAMMAD, SAYING: "I think they are trying to draw our attention with it, like giving a dog a bone, so the people would shut up. Because people are hungry and cannot bear it anymore." CANNABIS PLANTS IN FIELD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CANNABIS FARMER, ABU MOHAMMAD, SAYING: "Most important to give amnesty to the people, whether they legalise it or not. The most important thing is the amnesty. If they catch you with this, you are in prison for five years but you are stealing the public money. All these people in positions, they are all thieves." ABU MOHAMMAD WALKING THROUGH FIELD MORE OF FIELD FARM LABOURER WALKING THROUGH FIELD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LOCAL RESIDENT AND EX-CONVICT HELD IN CANNABIS RELATED CHARGES, ABU ABDO, SAYING: "There is unemployment here, and people here if it wasn't for the wars in the Middle East region so that they can escape with planting a few donums of hashish." Reporter asking: "What would a few donums do? ABU ABDO: "They bring some money in now but it is not a solution, people are poor." MORE OF FIELD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RESIDENT AND EX-CONVICT HELD IN CANNABIS RELATED CHARGES, ABU ABDO, SAYING: "Here, if you want to legalise it, the farmer will benefit not the trader. Do you want to the traders to keep their work, or you want to start an economic cycle and help the poor?" CANNABIS FLOWER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MAYOR OF YAMMOUNEH, TALAL SHREIF, SAYING: "Today the state is saying we are going to legalise hashish, ok, we are with that, because in this region we have 30 to 35 thousand persons who are wanted because of the farming of hashish, for sure, when it is legalised we will no longer have this many number of wanted people." CANNABIS FIELD FARMER HOLDING CANNABIS FLOWER FIELD BAR ELIAS, BEKAA, LEBANON (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LABOURERS WORKING IN FIELD LABOURER CARRYING BASKET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FARMER IN BAR ELIAS, KHALED ARAJI, SAYING: "We have heard that they (the authorities) are debating the leganisation of hashish, which is a really important issue for us because of the draught. We have been irrigating from Ghazeyel River which has dried up, it has not a drop of water, even a bird can't drink from it. What is the alternative? All our money is in the land and now there is no water, so we are bankrupt 10 years back." FARMLAND (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FARMER IN BAR ELIAS, KHALED ARAJI, SAYING: "If there is an alternative, we call on the government that if there is hashish farming, it is very good, we have to have an alternative for this farmer, who does not want to become rich but wants to be able to work in the summer to secure himself for the winter." ARAJI HOLDING UP GREEN ONIONS FIELD OF GREEN ONIONS
- Embargoed: 10th September 2018 14:10
- Keywords: Lebanon cannabis farmers Legalising the cultivation of cannabis in Lebanon Cannabis in Lebanon
- Location: YAMMOUNEH AND BAR ELIAS, LEBANON
- City: YAMMOUNEH AND BAR ELIAS, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Pollution,Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA0018UYQFRP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The contrast between the vibrant green of a cannabis field and the arid land nearby in Lebanon's Bekaa valley has for years raised a dilemma for the area's impoverished farmers.
Cannabis is hardier, less thirsty and cheaper to grow than the region's other main crops like apples and potatoes, but it is also illegal - for now.
Parliament will consider legalising its growth for medicinal use, the speaker said last month, but in the Bekaa, some people are unconvinced there will be a meaningful change.
"I think they are trying to draw our attention with it, like giving a dog a bone, so the people would shut up. Because people are hungry and cannot bear it anymore," said cannabis farmer Abu Mohammad, 52.
Talal Shreif, mayor of the town of Yammouneh in the northern Bekaa, said that about 35,000 people in the region were being sought by the police for cannabis farming.
What angers some people in the Bekaa is a feeling that they have little choice but to grow an illegal crop.
Abu Abdo, 40, a resident of the nearby town of Brital who spent years in prison for a cannabis offence said it was high local unemployment that pushed farmers to grow a few square kilometres of the narcotic.
The mayor, Shreif, raised the possibility that if legalised cannabis farming might be regulated in the same way as tobacco, with the government buying the crop at a set price.
Around his town, Yammouneh, there are about 1,500 square km of land used for cannabis farming, owned by about 150 local people who employ hundreds of casual Syrian labourers, he said.
For now, there is little likelihood of a rapid move towards legalisation. Nearly four months after a general election, Lebanon's political parties are still squabbling over the formation of a new coalition government.
But in Bar Elias, a nearby town, farmers say they are struggling. One farmer, Khaled Araji, said his recent crop of vegetables had suffered catastrophically from drought. The river that watered it has gone dry. "Not even a bird can drink from it," he said.
He said he would grow cannabis instead if the government allowed it. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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