CANNABIS CULTURE – The two North African Nations – by way of geography – sit on the mouth of the lucrative Africa to Europe cannabis route. But there is more to the conflict than just smoke.
In May 2021, the Moroccan parliament voted to legalize the cultivation of cannabis for medical, cosmetic, and industrial purposes. This is a key victory for small players in Morocco to come into the open and avoid the web of unregistered traffickers. According to the UNODC, is the world´s largest producer and exporter of hash and kif, though most of the trade is illicit.
Algeria furious
Algerian, a neighbor who shares 1427km long with Morocco, is frothing high with anger. Morocco is a weak state captured by illegal drug syndicates and is trying to drown Algerian youths in a sea of drugs, fumed Algeria´s elite politicians. Last week, Algeria cut off diplomatic with Morocco.
More than a joint
Cannabis is being a mere scapegoat here. Algeria is burning with envy seeing how Morocco is running away with the baton stick in seizing potentially the lucrative EU cannabis supply market for herself in a transparent way. The latest available data shows that Morocco is the biggest supplier of cannabisresin making its way to Europe, though the majority of supplies are via illicit unregistered exporters.
Now that Morocco has come into the open and decided to fully legalize the cultivation of medical cannabis, Algeria has just panicked that Morocco may seize the entire legal market to herself.
In contrast, Algeria´s government moralizes and maintains an official ban on the cultivation and trade in cannabis though the product is widely consumed inside Algeria. However, under the table, trades and exports of weed by Algeria’s traffickers thrive. As Cannabis Culture reported in 2018, Algeria weed used to be smuggled into Europe in massive quantities, either by boat or vehicle/ferry, but since European markets have become accustomed to high quality locally grown weed, demand for Algeria weed has dwindled significantly. This is largely due to lower standards of outdoor Algeria–grown cannabis compared to more professionally grown European ganja.
Algeria in catch-22 dilemma
Deep down, Algeria knows her potential: Algeria could become a regional hub for large–scale cannabis production. The climate is perfect, the soil is fertile and the country has a long heritage of unregistered cannabis farming and, with some assistance from modern farming technology, alongside quality genetics, there is no reason why Algeria couldn’t become synonymous with premium quality produce.
So Algeria is in a catch-22 situation: it continues tocriminalize the cultivation of cannabis at a time when the cannabis global prices are temptingespecially in nearby Europe. That makes Algeria envious because its ´moralizing´ government can´t quickly legalize weed without losing face in the court of public opinion.
Hence, the animosity directed at neighbour state Morocco. Algeria is panicking that a neighbor is steaming ahead, and will gobble all the incoming cannabis foreign direct investments.
It´s all smokin´ politics.
