As debt rises and recession bites, Lebanon becomes first Arab country to legalize cannabis cultivation
This week, Lebanon's lawmakers approved a bill to legalize the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal and industrial use in an effort to boost the country's debt-ridden economy — making it the first Arab country to do so. Last month, the country defaulted on its $1.2bn Eurobond — the first sovereign default in the country's history.
The Lebanese parliament voted to approve the cultivation of cannabis despite objections from the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc. The new law only affects cannabis that contains less than one percent of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
Cannabis is cultivated clandestinely in the eastern Bekaa Valley, which is dominated by Hezbollah, despite regular government eradication campaigns. Lebanon has cultivated cannabis for at least 100 years and produces large amounts of hashish, a sticky, sweet-smelling derivative of the cannabis plant that looks like chocolate.
Though it is illegal to produce, use or sell hashish, it is widely available in local markets and is also illegally exported. Lebanese hashish can be found in European capitals and formerly made up about 80 percent of the world's supply during the country's civil war years between 1975 and 1990 when cultivation was at its peak.
In 2018, global consulting firm McKinsey & Co recommended legalizing medical cannabis to Lebanon's cabinet along with building a wealth-management and investment-banking hub to boost the country's economy.
Legalizing cannabis could add up to $1 billion to the country's economy, Economy and Trade Minister Raed Khoury told Bloomberg.
Under the new law, those who have participated in the illegal sector would be barred from entering the new legal market. According to Al Jazeera, experts warn that the move risks creating a two-tier system where those who have traditionally grown cannabis would be marginalized.
Firas Maksad, a policy analyst and professor at George Washington University told The National that success of the law would depend on its implementation. "If regulated and taxed properly, this is a net positive for Lebanon," said Maksad.
He added, "It is important to note that Lebanon spent many millions of foreign assistance dollars in the nineties to fight cannabis farming in the Bekaa."
Maksad also noted that Hezbollah's public opposition to the bill may only be for display. "Hezbollah took a principled position against it given the party's claimed Islamic credentials, but practically it signaled to its allies that they can vote for the legislation," Maksad said.
However, in another report, The National states that experts warn that the new law could increase corruption. A local official from Brital, a town in the Bekaa, told the publication he was not convinced about the effectiveness of the law.
"This project does not meet our aspirations. On the contrary, it helps to corrupt society," said Mukhtar Ahmad Mohamed Tleiss to The National. He added, "The problem is that… property owners own unregistered lands. These lands have been inherited from our forefathers during the era of the French and the Turks."
In many remote rural areas of Lebanon, particularly those close to the Syrian border, private property has never been formally delineated by the state since its independence in 1943. Tleiss says it is difficult for farmers to enter a state-supervised system of cannabis production for this reason.