BAB BERED, MOROCCO (AP) — Since the beginning cultivation of cannabis Mohamed Makhlouf, 14, has been unable to sleep and has been living in the shadows as he braces himself for a knock on his door from the authorities, which could result in him being jailed or having his crops confiscated.
But after decades of working in secrecy, Makhlouf finally has peace of mind. Morocco He is working to expand legal cultivation and integrate veteran growers like him into the formal economy.
On his farm, deep in the Rif Mountains, stalks of government-approved cannabis strains sprout from the ground. He noticed police as they passed on a nearby road. But while the smell of crops once meant danger, today there is no need to worry. They know he sells to the local cooperative.
“Legalization is freedom,” Makhlouf said. “If you want your job to be clean, you work with companies within the bounds of the law.”
Makhlouf’s story, 70, reflects the experience of a small but growing number of farmers who started out in Morocco’s vast black market and now sell legally to cooperatives that produce cannabis for medical and industrial use.
A new market begins to emerge
Morocco is the world’s largest producer of cannabis and a top supplier of the resin used to make hashish. For many years authorities are upset UN reports and government data show that the economy directly or indirectly supports hundreds of thousands of people in the Rif Mountains, but the problem is between turning a blind eye and repressing them.
Abdelsalam Amraj, another cannabis farmer who has joined the legal industry, said the crop is critical to the survival of the community.
“Local farmers have tried growing wheat, nuts, apples and other crops, but none of them have yielded viable results,” he says.
This area is known as Epicenter of anti-government sentiment And producers have lived with arrest warrants for years. They avoided cities and towns. Many saw their fields burned in government campaigns targeting cultivation.
Cannabis can fetch high prices on the black market, but the risk reduction is worth it, Amraj said.
“Earning money in illegal areas brings fear and problems,” he said. “If everything was legal, nothing like that would happen.”
Market remains highly regulated
The change began in 2021 when Morocco became the first major illegal cannabis producer and the first Muslim-majority country to pass a law legalizing certain forms of cultivation.
Officials welcomed the move as a way to lift small farmers like Makhlouf and Amraj out of poverty and integrate cannabis-growing areas into the economy after decades of marginalization.
In 2024, King Muhammad VI The Ministry of Justice said at the time that it had pardoned more than 4,800 farmers serving prison sentences to allow long-time growers to “integrate into new strategies.”
Since legalization took effect in 2022, Morocco has tightly regulated every step of production and sales, from seeds and pesticides to agricultural permits and distribution. Although certain cultivation is authorized, authorities have shown no signs of moving toward legalization or reform aimed at recreational consumers.
“We have two contradictory missions: to succeed in the same project in the same environment,” said Mohamed El Guerrouj, head of Morocco’s Cannabis Regulatory Authority. “As police officers, our mission is to enforce regulations, but our mission is also to help farmers and business owners succeed with their projects.”
Licensing and cooperatives are part of the new ecosystem
Last year, the agency issued licenses to more than 3,371 growers across the Rif, recording the amount of legal cannabis produced around 4,200 tonnes.
The Biokana cooperative, located near the town of Bab Beled, buys cannabis from around 200 small-scale farmers during the harvest season. Raw plants have been transformed into pretty jars of CBD oil, jars of lotion, and chocolate that have spread across the shelves of Moroccan pharmacies.
Some batches are milled into industrial hemp for textiles. For medicinal use and export, some of the products are refined into products containing less than 1% THC, the psychoactive compound that gives cannabis its high.
Aziz Makhlouf, director of the cooperative, said legalization has created a whole ecosystem that employs not just farmers.
“There are people who are responsible for packaging, there are people who are responsible for transportation, there are people who are responsible for irrigation. All of this has been made possible by legalization,” said Makhlouf, a native of Bab Beled, whose family has been involved in cannabis cultivation for many years.
Legalization brought licenses, formal cooperatives, and the hope of a steady income without fear of arrest. However, this change also exposed the limits of reform. The legal market remains too small to absorb the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the illegal trade, and the new rules are creating additional pressure, farmers and experts say.
Protests erupted in parts of neighboring Tauneit in August after a cooperative there failed to pay producers for their crops. The farmers waved banners reading “No legalization without rights” and “Enough procrastination,” furious that they were never paid what they were promised for working legally at the government’s request. local media reported.
Illegal cultivation continues
The government insists that change is just beginning and that challenges can be overcome.
However, black market demand remains high. According to government data, cannabis is currently legally grown on 14,300 acres (5,800 hectares) in the Rif region, while more than 67,000 acres (27,100 hectares) are used for illegal cultivation. The number of farmers entering the legal system remains small compared to the number of farmers considered to be involved in illegal markets.
An April report from the Global Institute to Combat Transnational Organized Crime characterized the industry as “a coexistence of both markets rather than a definitive transition from one market to the other.”
“A significant proportion of the population continues to rely on illicit cannabis networks for income generation, perpetuating the power relations that the state seeks to reform,” the report said.
For now, Morocco’s two cannabis economies exist side by side, one regulated and one illegal, as Morocco tries to coax a centuries-old trade from the shadows without leaving farmers behind.
“Marijuana is now legal, just like mint,” Amraj said. “I never imagined that the day would come when I would receive a cultivation license. I’m shocked.”
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Akram Oubachir contributed to this report.
