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| Lebanon: Hash Makes a Comeback |
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Posted by FoM on September 09, 2001 at 08:13:40 PT By Joshua Hammer, Newsweek International Source: Newsweek International 
Abu Ali is back in business. Wading through a fertile field in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the 30-year-old farmer squeezes the bud of a seven-foot-high plant and rubs the sticky juices between his fingers. The fragrant, spiky-leafed crop extends for acres in every direction—enough cannabis to make Cheech and Chong weep in envy. From 1993 until last year, Ali (a pseudonym) struggled to make a living growing sugar beets here, abandoning the family’s traditional cash crop—marijuana—in exchange for promises of U.N. development money.
“Every year they told us this would be the year the money arrives,” says Ali. “Finally we got tired of waiting.” Last April he dusted off some old seeds he’d kept in dry storage, and replanted 15 acres with cannabis—worth $60,000 on the wholesale market. Ali knows the risks: government helicopters recently dropped leaflets across the Bekaa Valley, warning the farmers that they’d be arrested if they harvested the crop. “We hear their threats, but they mean nothing,” says Ali, breathing in the sweet aroma from his field of dreams. “We’re going to stay and fight.” It may not be an idle threat. Long a stronghold of smugglers and Hizbullah guerrillas, this sun-baked valley in the heart of Lebanon is fast regaining its outlaw reputation. After a 10-year hiatus, ripening fields of cannabis carpet the rugged hills above the Bekaa as well as the drier flatlands, where many farmers have tried to conceal the outlaw crop behind rows of tobacco and corn. Hizbullah’s influence is growing as well. Drug experts say some cultivators are in league with the guerrillas, who need funds for their military campaign against Israel. The proliferation of weed has become an embarrassment for Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who is struggling to pay off his country’s $25 billion debt and attract foreign investment. With the harvest just days away, Hariri and his government face a dilemma: if they allow the farmers to bring their cannabis crop to market, they risk forfeiting tens of millions of dollars in international aid and undermining Lebanon’s attempts to improve its image abroad. If they send in troops, they could face violent resistance from Ali and other armed cultivators. Either way, the conflict reveals how Lebanon’s effort to rejoin the international community is being dragged down by forces from its chaotic past. Drugs have a long tradition in the Bekaa Valley, from the days of the Roman conquerors through Lebanon’s civil war, which ended in 1990. Cultivators and tribal drug lords working with militias built up a thriving cannabis trade that brought in $1.5 billion at its peak in 1988. Ships packed with bars of Lebanese hash sailed out of Beirut, Tripoli and other lawless ports, bound for Egypt, Israel and Europe. Newly minted drug multimillionaires built garish mansions across the valley and stashed their fortunes overseas. The trade collapsed during the worldwide crackdown on narcotics led by the United States in the early 1990s. Under pressure from the U.S. State Department, the occupying Syrian Army plowed up the Bekaa’s cannabis fields and sprayed them with poison. The drug lords were forced to sell off their villas, the militias melted away and the farmers—who were promised U.N. irrigation projects, alternative-crop subsidies and other incentives—agreed to grow less lucrative produce, like plums and wheat. But the funds never materialized. Mohammed Nasser El-Ferjani, a top U.N. official in Lebanon, says donors ponied up only $16.7 million of the $300 million the United Nations claims it needs to develop Bekaa agriculture. Western officials say the U.N. frittered away the money it did receive through mismanagement and malfeasance. Under the circumstances, marijuana—easy to grow, well suited to dry climates and highly profitable—was irresistible to farmers who’d struggled to earn a living growing labor-intensive legal crops. The Lebanese government is in a deepening quandary over how to deal with the outlaw crop. Hussein Husseini, the Bekaa Valley’s representative in Parliament, has urged Prime Minister Hariri to offer the farmers one-time compensation, burn the harvested weed and quickly make good on promises to bring irrigation and other improvements to the Bekaa. But Hariri has rejected the idea, claiming that compensation would amount to a bribe and wouldn’t be fair to farmers who’ve resisted growing dope. Hariri insists he’ll send in the troops, though many observers believe he’s bluffing. “My suspicion is that the harvest will be sold,” says a Western diplomat. “Then we’ll say, ‘OK, it happened one year—but if you want any credibility in world markets, if you want the West to help you globalize, this has got to stop’.” Note: The Bekaa Valley regains its outlaw reputation. Related Articles: For Lebanese Farmers, Weed Is Again the Crop Hashish Grows Again in the Fields of Lebanon Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #6 posted by dddd on September 09, 2001 at 15:12:13 PT |
| ....yes,,the spicy bite of fine hashhish,,of course, after lighting up ,,it expands,,and one usually ends up coughing,,,,a big ol' bogart hit might make you really cough,,and you'll think that you may barf up a lung.........a minute or so later,, you are fine. Just thinking of the pleasant,rich,robust and exotic [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by Imprint on September 09, 2001 at 14:25:28 PT |
| Boy would I love to smoke some blonde hash again (it’s been 15 years!). That sweet smell, luscious flavor, the supreme high; my mouth is watering. It makes me sick to think that all that great smoke would be wasted. Yes, there would be a great big market for hash in the US and this is just what the drug warriors are afraid of. Lebanon would have a worldwide market, independence (from the US and UN), money and power. Exactly what the US drug warriors don’t want. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by freedom fighter on September 09, 2001 at 11:44:32 PT |
| Poof! 300 million dollars gone in the air "Western officials say the U.N. frittered away the money it did receive through mismanagement and malfeasance." Average Joe Sixpack who pay TAXES on this! I have no doubt that the "Western officials" and the bankers are involved with this malfeasance. One sure-fired way to bring U.S.S.A into a helpless bully, other than just voting, do not file income taxes. What Mr. Sinators and congresscritters do not want Average Joe to know that there are presently millions of smart folks who are not paying one red cent. And every year, more people are doing just that. ff PS) I fear for these well armed farmers because everytime someone publish an article like that, something bad is going to happen. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by Rambler on September 09, 2001 at 11:15:25 PT |
| Red Lebanese,Orange Sunshine,Black Lights,The Cream [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #2 posted by objective on September 09, 2001 at 09:35:06 PT:
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| If lebanon legalized and taxed ganga within its sovereign borders, even if it did not recieve the money from foreign incvestment sources, the cannabis trade could provide a significantly larger amount of money for the lebanese government than any of these global organizations. In a sense, it would be going global anyway. It could be a global exporter of cannabis products. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by bruce42 on September 09, 2001 at 09:02:56 PT |
| "Then we’ll say, ‘OK, it happened one year—but if you want any credibility in world markets, if you want the West to help you globalize, this has got to stop’....” Is this guy blind? If MJ were a legal market in the Western world, imagine the initial demand from commercial operations that would want to produce and sell the herb? These farmers would have an already viable crop growing and ready to ship while we in the US are still gearing up our ops. Small farmers like this would have an unprecedented opportunity at having a share in the global market! What a way for the West to help them globalize! But no, that is too easy. We want them to grow crops that are already produced in our own country and to somehow compete in long established markets against huge companies like ADM... its like telling Wisconsin farmers to stop their dairy ops under threat of deadly force and start growing huge amounts of corn or soybeans like Iowa does, or wheat as in Kansas. I doubt the idea would be very popular. There is a reason veggies grow in California, wheat in Kansas, tobacco in Kentucky, peaches in Georgia, potatoes in Idaho... becuase the plants grow well there and can be sold for profit. I thought these guys were market experts or something... whatever. [ Post Comment ] |
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