18 Oct 2022
Moroccan Hashish History, it's evolution, and legalization
Earlier we had talked about RSO, ( the Rick Simpson Oil) which is widely used extraction method know in west. I then remembered the Moroccan hashish making method to be an unique tradition in dry regions. So today we will be talking about
Moroccan Hashish History, its evolution and how it is adopting the wave of cannabis legalisation globally.
Despite Moroccan hash is often considered an ancient, traditional product by many Europeans, the truth is that hashish culture in Morocco is relatively young, especially when compared to traditional producing countries of this cannabis concentrate. Indeed, while hashish production in areas like Middle East and Central Asia dates back centuries, this technique had not been used in Northern Africa until the second half of the 20th century, when Western travellers from the "Hippy Hashish Trail" brought the dry sieving technique to Morocco from Lebanon and Afghanistan.
For producing Moroccan hashish,
Once dried, they'd put a mesh covering a bucket or a similar container and place the plants on the mesh. Everything was then wrapped with some plastic and the plants beaten with sticks to release the resin glands, which would pass through the sieve holes and collected at the bottom of the container. They soon realized that ground material yeilds more than unbroken plants, at the expense of contaminating the resin even more.
Now as I am discussing Moroccan Hashish,
Morocco has issued its first 10 permits for cannabis production after passing a medical cannabis legalization law last year, as per the Reuters reports. A state agency said farmers who organize into cooperatives in the northern mountain areas will be allowed to cultivate cannabis to meet the needs of the newly legal market.
The bill approved in February 2021 said that Morocco’s illegal cannabis trade was worth about $15 billion – the majority of which ($14.5 billion) goes to drug traffickers rather than farmers who take mere ($500 million).
Morocco had previously allowed cannabis cultivation in some rural areas under a special status but seven years ago reduced the amount of land where the practice was allowed from 134,000 hectares to 47,000 hectares.
In 2015, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime identified Morocco as the world’s largest producer of hashish, and 235 tons of hash were seized in the country that year alone. The report found 80% of the national hash production is destined for export, leaving 20% for the local market.
The law is intended to improve the incomes of farmers, who had protested over income inequality in recent years, and protect them from drug traffickers who control the cannabis trade and export it illegally to Europe.
Production under the law can only focus on cannabis for “medical, pharmaceutical and industrial purposes.”
