A cannabis field in the village of Azila at the foot of Morocco’s mountainous Rif region.
Photographer: Fadel Senna/AFP
World’s Biggest Hashish Exporter Is Struggling to Go Legal
Morocco wants to establish a medical cannabis industry, but farmers are suspicious of the government — and loyal to drug barons.
On a cedar-lined dusty track in the north of Morocco, visitors are greeted by a pungent whiff of cannabis and the loud tapping sound of workers busy extracting hashish.
It’s cashing in time in the village of Tamadit, tucked 4,000 feet high on the slopes of the Rif mountains. The narcotic pollen is beaten out of the sun-dried plant and turned into compact blocks of resin for a customer arriving that day. The dope will then be sold on domestically or shipped to buyers with deeper pockets in Europe a short hop across the Mediterranean Sea.