YAMOUNEH, Lebanon - In a Lebanese farming village of rocky soil and stone villas, cannabis grows everywhere. It fills the fields that surround the village and lines nearby roads where the army operates checkpoints. It sprouts in the weedy patches between homes and is mixed with other colorful blooms in flower beds. There is a cannabis crop near the mosque, and down the road from a giant yellow flag for Hezbollah, the militant group and political party whose leaders forbid its use on religious grounds. [continues 1133 words]
BAALBEK,Lebanon: The warehouse was swirling with cannabis dust, workers with covered faces sorting the harvest that was piled in mounds. They had their hands full at the mini-factory outside Baalbek sorting through one of the largest fall harvests in recent years, one that many farmers in the Bekaa Valley see as a lifeline amid a stagnant economy. "We decided here that we do not want people to go hungry," Ali Nasri, a prominent cannabis farmer in the Bekaa Valley, told The Daily Star. "Instead of stealing, plant hashish and confront the state." [continues 730 words]
In Lebanon, Where All Eyes Are on a Neighbouring Country Tearing Itself Apart, a Multi-Million-Dollar Drug Trade Is Flourishing Like Never Before LEBANON'S drug kingpin watched his workers sink spades into the piles of marijuana that banked the walls of his factory, throwing the chopped plants on to machines that sifted out the top-quality hash bound for Britain's streets. The secret processing plant outwardly an unremarkable cow barn stands on a hillside overlooking the fertile plains of the Bekaa Valley, where cannabis is once again a multi-million-dollar drug trade. [continues 903 words]
The Syrian civil war has led to a surge in cannabis production in Lebanon as the country's army is forced to focus on security rather than drug eradication. In the BekaaValley,Ali Nasri Shamas carries a revolver by his side and an automatic rifle in the back of his car, weapons he says he's ready to use if the army moves in to try to destroy his lucrative cannabis crop. But he may not need them this year. With Syria's civil war 30 miles away, Lebanese security forces have other priorities than their annual showdown with the Bekaa hashish growers. [continues 299 words]
Hardy Crop Brings Big Profit for Farmers As Syria Conflict Diverts Troops From Drug Eradication BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon (Reuters) - Driving around his Bekaa Valley farmland, Ali Nasri Shamas carries a revolver by his side and an automatic rifle in the back of his car, weapons he says he's ready to use if the army moves in to try to destroy his lucrative cannabis crop. But he may not need them this year. With Syria's civil war raging 50 km away, Lebanese security forces have other priorities than their annual showdown with the Bekaa hashish growers. [continues 908 words]
The latest police seizure of Captagon pills, around 12 million this time, must be commended, but until the problem is addressed at the source, the story looks set to continue, and the market will continue to overflow with the drug. Every week or so, it seems, another consignment of the amphetamine is found, whether at the airport, the border with Syria, or at the port. This latest haul was discovered at the Beirut port, and two of the four individuals arrested were port staff themselves. Allegedly headed for the United Arab Emirates, and hidden in bags of corn, this huge quantity of drugs raises many questions. [continues 185 words]
BEKAA - Lebanese marijuana grower Abu Sami is practically rubbing his hands together with glee: the Syrian conflict has paralyzed authorities at home and left the nearby border virtually uncontrolled. "This year, the harvest was abundant, and the authorities have left us alone because they are otherwise occupied," he said in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region. In the past, the Lebanese army would descend annually to destroy some of the illicit crop, but this year the harvest has gone untouched. The area shares a long, porous border with Syria and is a stronghold of the Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the Syrian regime against a 32-month-old uprising. [continues 489 words]
SIDON, Lebanon: In light of reports of rampant drug use across Lebanon, Sidon launched Sunday a civil council to fight drug addiction. The body is tasked with developing programs to raise awareness as well as establishing a specialized drug rehabilitation center. At the ceremony to inaugurate the civil council - the first of its kind in Sidon addressing addiction - Sidon Mayor Mohammad Saudi said that the project "should be an example of breaking the barrier of silence and fear of addressing the problem of addiction." [continues 323 words]
BEIRUT: A sit-in by residents of Yammouneh in east Lebanon thwarted attempts by authorities Saturday to carry on with their crackdown on cannabis fields in the area. A worker involved in the eradication program was also wounded Saturday when unidentified gunmen fired at the van where he and his colleagues were on board. With burning tires, boulders and vehicles, residents of Yammouneh blocked the three entrances to the village, preventing access to tractors tasked with felling the cannabis fields in the area. [continues 548 words]
ZOUEITENIYE, Lebanon: Located 5 kilometers west of Hermel in northeastern Lebanon, Zoueiteniye is now almost a ghost town as for years its residents have migrated to Beirut and its suburbs. Many of the town's stone houses are partially destroyed and just 10 remain occupied today. Most of Zoueiteniye's original 500 residents have moved to the city as a result of the government's neglect of the village and failure to ensure the most basic living standards. One of the remaining residents, who asked to be identified by his initials M.F., works in agriculture and has five dunums (5,000 square meters) of cannabis fields. [continues 599 words]
HERMEL, Lebanon: The Internal Security Forces Tuesday postponed its plan to destroy cannabis fields in Hermel after failing to secure the required number of bulldozers needed to carry out the operation. The plan was put on hold after bulldozer owners in the region refused to rent their machinery to the police out of fear they would be targeted by the drug cultivators. In the early hours of Tuesday morning a large number of ISF units headed to Hermel, accompanied by the Central Office of Drug Control, and waited for the bulldozers to arrive so they could commence the operation. [continues 353 words]
BEIRUT: Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil called for an urgent national policy Friday to combat drug abuse throughout the country, revealing that nearly 4 percent of addicts are students. Speaking on the occasion of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at the Lebanese University, Khalil said that the reason laws on drugs have not been implemented is because the government lacks the proper infrastructure. "If implemented, the anti-drug law passed in 1998 could have organized the relationship between the addict and the ministries in finding proper treatments in agreement with international standards," said Khalil. [continues 259 words]
Quite right - the Obama administration is gearing up to pressure the Europeans to put more men in boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Quite right - the Europeans don't want to engage in a war of attrition - a la USSR in Afghanistan in the 1980s, or the United States in Vietnam a decade and a half earlier. There is nothing worse than having to pull out with your tail between your legs and confront the electorate with thousands of needless deaths of their brave young. [continues 726 words]
With the Army Busy With Security and Its Battle in Nahr AL-Bared, None of the Annual Cannabis-Eradication Projects Have Been Carried Out BAALBEK: Sporting a grey and green suit and a watch with golden trimmings, Abu Abbas takes a long drag from his cigarette, smiles, exhales into a room already filled with smoke, and declares that "business is good." His freshly cut fields of cannabis are being prepared for consumption. [continues 1237 words]
Farmers in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley Are Growing More Marijuana Now That Government Forces Are Once Again Too Busy With Conflicts to Stop Them. Bekaa Valley, Lebanon - Ali plucks a sprig of the cannabis sativa plant and sniffs its distinctive leaves with appreciation. This Lebanese farmer's field of marijuana, a splash of bright green on the sun-baked plains of eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, will yield around 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of cannabis resin, or hashish, which he will sell for about $10,000, many times more than he could hope to earn from legitimate crops and for almost no work at all. [continues 880 words]
Barry Cooper's new DVD, Never Get Busted Again, which went on sale over the Internet recently, may not be selling very well outside the United States, because in most other countries the possession of marijuana for personal use is treated as a misdemeanor or simply ignored by the police. But it will sell very well in the US, where many thousands of casual marijuana users are hit with savage jail terms every year in a nationwide game of Russian roulette in which most people indulge their habit unharmed while a few unfortunates have their lives ruined. [continues 820 words]
Last month, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Afghanistan that could pave the way for a new and more open-minded approach to counternarcotics strategies worldwide. In fact, the resolution called on the participants at a conference of donors, which took place in London at the end of January, "to take into consideration the proposal of licensed production of opium for medical purposes, as already granted to a number of countries." This proposal was originally made by the Senlis Council, an independent organization based in Paris, during a workshop in Kabul last September. The text introduced by the European Liberal Democrats, with the support of virtually all political groups in the European Parliament, is revolutionary, not only because it goes against conventional thinking, but also because it raises the issue above the stagnant reality of the "war on drugs." In Afghanistan, that so-called war has essentially been based on eradication campaigns and alternative livelihood projects, which have achieved only scant results. [continues 750 words]
BEKAA: Internal Security Forces director general Major General Ashraf Rifi supervised the destruction of hashish crops in several areas of the Bekaa, reiterating the authorities' determination to prohibit the cultivation of drugs in Lebanon. Rifi, who was accompanied by a number of high-ranking security officials, said the campaign would continue for 10 days, after which all hashish crops would be eliminated. He explained that there are six axes for investigation and eradication, each of which is supervised by an officer. [continues 253 words]
7.5 Milion Meters Of Crop Destroyed BEKAA: An estimated total of 7,540,000 square meters of cannabis fields have been destroyed in Baalbek and eastern Bekaa over the past two weeks in an attempt to stop drug trafficking and drug addiction in the country. According to security reports, the effort was undertaken by the Anti-Drug Bureau in cooperation with Internal Security Forces in the Bekaa and forces of the Lebanese and Syrian Armies. Six dunums of cannabis plants were uprooted beginning on July 28, and later 665 dunums on Aug.2, 469 dunums on Aug.3, 4,000 dunums between Aug.4 and Aug. 6., and 1,400 dunums between Aug.9 and Aug.10 were destroyed. [continues 86 words]
Group Targets Intersections, Summer Festivals Some Are Inspired To Work On The Issue After Having Seen Friends And Acquaintances Succumb To Chemical Dependency BEIRUT: Most people remember their high school and college years as a period consumed with studying, partying and fretting over zits. Summertime would also include days of lounging on the beach or playing sports. Come winter, and one might hit the ski slopes. But this is not the case for a group of volunteers, aged 17 to 24, who have been filling many of the country's cross-sections to raise awareness - from Beirut to Beiteddine - about the dangers of drug use. [continues 1195 words]
Inhabitants Struggle To Clear Community's Name Zoning, Civil Planning, Development Guidelines Are Missing In Residents' Daily Lives BEKAA: Like hundreds of similar Lebanese villages, Brital, in Eastern Bekaa, has very little in the way of a public infrastructure. Despite the cash influx that once resulted from hashish farming, zoning, civil planning and development guidelines are generally missing elements in a daily life that has left residents in a state of permanent despair. Now, after efforts to promote alternative crop cultivation failed, Brital is still suffering from a reputation as a hashish zone without having the luxury of enjoying any of the benefits that came with the trade. [continues 608 words]
Proposed Slogan: 'Plant to Eat, Not to Kill' 'Our decision is firm ...We will not allow the harvesting of poisons' For the sake of Lebanon and its children, do not plant drugs, Interior Minister Elias Murr advised farmers a few weeks before what could be the start of a new drug planting season. "We will carry on with our war on drug cultivation, the war between good and evil, and we will not stop nor compromise until what is right wins over what is wrong," Murr said Tuesday, during a workshop held under his patronage at UNESCO on ways to fight drug cultivation. [continues 520 words]
Oum Al-Nour Provides Vital Care Karim, 21, has been sober for 35 days. It is the longest time since his 17th birthday, when Karim started using drugs almost every day. "A friend gave me a white, hand-rolled cigarette," Karim recalled. "I smoked it alone and that instantly became a daily routine." Exactly three years later, Karim never got to blow out the candles on his birthday cake. All he remembers is that he invited friends over, they took drugs and he woke up the next day in intensive care with tubes coming out of his body. [continues 547 words]
Interior and Municipalities Minister Elias Murr has announced the end of the "illegal crops issue" in the Bekaa, following the destruction of 114 million square meters of cannabis and 9 million square meters of opium. Speaking during a visit to the area Wednesday, Murr said the destruction operation was carried out by the Internal Security Forces with the army's cooperation and Syria's support. He added that the government was "serious" in preventing the cultivation of drugs "until we reach the day when no one will think of it anymore." [continues 54 words]
An international delegation of anti-drug officers toured Wednesday the Baalbek villages of Boudai, Iaat, Shleefa, and Flaway to inquire about the cannabis eradication campaign, which has targeted over 70,000 dunums in the past two weeks. According to the National News Agency, US liaison officer B. J. Lawrence praised the security forces' joint efforts, adding that following the tour the delegation would submit a report to Washington and the US Embassy here. Judicial Police commander Colonel Samir Sobh said destroyed cannabis fields increased to about 71,000 dunums in the Baalbek-Hermel areas and 2,110 dunums in the North. He added that eradication work in the North was completed two days ago. Some 90,000 dunums will be destroyed by the end of the campaign late this month, particularly after additional fields were discovered in remote mountainous areas. The cost of the campaign has exceeded LL400 million, Sobh said. [end]
The commander of the Judicial Police, Brigadier Samir Sobh, said Saturday that over 50,000 dunums of hashish fields had been destroyed, as the second phase of cannabis eradication reached its eleventh day. Members of the Anti-Drug Bureau, the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese Army joined forces with Syrian security forces in Lebanon to carry out the eradication operation in Baalbek-Hermel fields for the eleventh consecutive day. Sobh told reporters in a field located in the Shleefa-Iaat area of Baalbek that no security incidents had been reported yet. [continues 66 words]
A truck rolled through the middle of a green field in Douris, leaving behind a brown path as 70 centimeter-tall cannabis plants were either smashed or bent to the ground. After a considerable part of the approximately 150-dunum field was transformed into a mainly brown area, several shabbily clothed peasants were seen working. Asked if it was the family's land, a young woman worker, her mouth and nose covered by a piece of cloth to protect against the plants' intoxicating effects, said: "No, we're workers." "The government is paying us LL10,000 per day to do that," she said, uprooting a plant with her rough hands. [continues 794 words]
Conference Surveys Good And Bad News On Illicit Substances Success In Fighting Illegal Cultivation Is Tempered By Statistics Showing Increased Use Lebanon's efforts to fight drug cultivation and production could pull in much-needed international funding for development, although the country faces sobering new statistics about the rise in drug use, particularly among young people. The good and bad news was heard by participants at a conference on Tuesday, held by the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) and the Institute for Development and Applied Care (IDAC). [continues 1085 words]
Saga Of 10-Year Heroin Habit Is Lesson For All Growing Grip Of Narcotics Probably A Result Of Economic Difficulty, Family Disintegration And Disempowerment In Postwar Era It took a 10-year affair with heroin, an overdose that nearly took his life and two years of rehabilitation for Fads* to recognize his feeling of alienation and admit he was an addict. The saga of this 27-year-old is that of a growing number of young Lebanese who have ended up in the tight grip of narcotics, presumably to alleviate feelings of anxiety from growing economic difficulties, family disintegration and disempowerment which prevail in the country's postwar period. [continues 969 words]
But Some Say Message Is Blurred Dakhilkon Afyoun (I Beg You Opium) is a song by Ghassan Rahbani that plays the length of a four-minute commercial produced by the Interior Ministry as part of a nationwide awareness campaign on the dangers of drug use. The television ad shows a number of young addicts, including Rahbani, singing about finding refuge in drugs as a way of escaping problems. Rahbani finds himself arrested by the Internal Security Forces and pleads with them in total agony: "I beg you opium, I beg you opium!" when the officer responds that it is against the law and that drugs will degrade him. [continues 317 words]
ZAHLE, Lebanon - Lebanese security forces dug up dozens of fields planted with opium poppies in the eastern Bekaa Valley this week and arrested three men during drugs raids in the area, security officials said on Saturday. In a highly publicised campaign aimed at stamping out a re-emerging drug trade, officials said security forces had destroyed some 420 hectares (1,038 acres) of opium fields in the last four days. They said more than five tonnes of hashish were confiscated in two raids in the Baalbek-Hermel area. [continues 95 words]
Murr Says Campaign Will Safeguard Nation's 'Reputation And Credibility' Lebanese security forces began an intensive one-week campaign Tuesday aimed at destroying 5 million square meters of poppy fields. Fighting bad weather, a 100-member team of Internal Security Forces and army personnel equipped with tractors destroyed about 1.2 million square meters of poppy plantations on the first day of the campaign. Speaking during a news conference at his office in Beirut, Interior Minister Elias Murr said that within a week, all poppy crops nationwide would be razed, with the exception of fields now covered with snow, whose destruction would have to wait until spring. [continues 683 words]
A recent survey I conducted upon my last visit concluded that at least 45 percent of the Lebanese population smoked hashish. The same survey also concluded that 90 percent of tourists smoked hashish. What better way to exploit these findings then to "Amsterdamize" Beirut? The first step is to distinguish between drugs that pose a danger to society (heroin and cocaine), and those that are no more harmful than a drink (hashish and marijuana). If the government were to issue 10 licenses to growers in the Bekaa, and issue 20 licenses for pub owners in Beirut to supply users with hashish and marijuana in their establishment, then money collected in taxes could be used to aid Lebanon to get out of its debt. [continues 81 words]
Interior Minister Elias Murr said Sunday that a "wide-scale" campaign to eradicate drug trafficking had begun, and he threatened anyone involved in growing opium poppies or distributing the drug with prosecution and immediate destruction of their crop. Murr said he gave the army and security forces instructions to bulldoze any patch of land being used to cultivate opium, and warned that authorities would accept no excuses, "of whatever kind," for the continued cultivation of drugs. Several months ago, Murr opted not to crack down on cannabis cultivation in the Bekaa, saying that a socio-economic plan to help destitute farmers was also needed. However, on Sunday, the minister, who issued the orders in his capacity as head of the Central Security Council, stressed the damage that drugs caused young people by "destroying their future." [end]
Lebanon issued a tough warning to poppy growers yesterday, threatening them with life imprisonment if they do not abandon the drug trade. Cultivation of cannabis and opium poppies in the Bekaa valley - a stronghold of Hizbullah - has increased dramatically this year following the failure of efforts to find alternative crops for the farmers. The acreage of cannabis grown in the valley this season was the highest since the end of Lebanon's 15-year civil war in 1990. Despite government threats to destroy the crops and jail farmers for life, the cannabis crop was successfully harvested, although it has yet to reach the markets. [continues 175 words]
The Bekaa Valley Regains Its Outlaw Reputation 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." [continues 682 words]
BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon -- For seven years, Abu Mohammed tried to support his wife and five children by growing melons. But there was never enough water, and even when weather conditions were good, no one wanted to buy his produce. So now he's cultivating a crop sure to sell: Cannabis sativa, the spiky, olive green plant used to produce hashish. "To us, this is just a crop," Abu Mohammed said as he checked his plot, stretching the length of a football field alongside the main road in this sunburned valley in northeastern Lebanon. "I would rather plant melons, but customers are always ready to buy hashish." The Bekaa Valley is nearly barren of crops; its irrigation channels are dry and filled with debris. But cannabis needs little water to grow, and after years of waiting for government assistance, many farmers here have turned to the illicit harvest. [continues 1395 words]
BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon -- For seven years, Abu Mohammed tried to support his wife and five children by growing melons. But there was never enough water, and even when weather conditions were good, no one wanted to buy his produce. So now he's cultivating a crop sure to sell: Cannabis sativa, the spiky, olive green plant used to produce hashish. "To us, this is just a crop," Abu Mohammed said as he checked his plot, stretching the length of a football field alongside the main road in this sunburned valley in northeastern Lebanon. "I would rather plant melons, but customers are always ready to buy hashish." [continues 1436 words]
The debate on the revival of drug cultivation in the impoverished Baalbek-Hermel area has exposed the hypocrisy of all the parties concerned. There is, first, the hypocrisy of Hizbullah, whose Ammar Musawi deployed splendid duplicity on Tuesday to both defend drug cultivation while also insisting it was a problem. The party has had a mixed record in the Bekaa in the past few years, and does not want to lose its drug-cultivating electorate as it did the followers of Sheikh Sobhi Toufeili. [continues 720 words]
The government said Monday that it would soon release a new plan to fight the resurgence of drug cultivation, but what sounds like a good idea will only work if Beirut keeps its word by developing realistic new policies and convincing the international community to honor its commitments. The latter point has been made ad nauseam, but never very effectively, so Beirut needs to trumpet the shameful behavior of the United Nations on this front. The formula was simple: Beirut agreed to crack down on hashish and opium growers, and the UN promised to provide funding to help the farmers in question plant new crops that would help them escape the cycle of poverty that forced them into illicit cultivation in the first place. With astonishing effectiveness, the Lebanese government has sharply reduced the amount of land being used to grow illegal drug crops. This was no mean feat for a tiny nation whose government was still trying to recover from the anarchy of a long civil war. But with the UN promise in hand, Beirut rightly reasoned that painful steps had to be taken. [continues 308 words]
Why Farmers In Hermel Have More Faith In 'Gold' Than Government At first, it looks like a cornfield. But step a few metres into the corn and the stooks turn into little bright-green trees with spiky leaves, all swaying in the breeze up the narrow mountain valley. When my guide started gesticulating towards another, smaller field, I pleaded with him not to point. There are gunmen aplenty in these hills in the same dark Mercedes they used in the civil war but the man laughed. [continues 832 words]
Rana Rinawi investigates what help is available for Lebanon's young drug addicts Looking at Samir's smiley face and listening to his wise talk, it is hard to believe that he has a history of addiction to drugs and prescription medication. But at the age of 18, Samir (not his real name) has witnessed more unhappiness and abuse than most of his peers. However, things are looking up for the young man. Samir is about to leave a rehabilitation center for drug addicts after a 16-month stay. [continues 1370 words]
Agriculture Minister Ali Abdullah said on Friday that donor countries' failure to support development projects in the Bekaa was responsible for the return of cannabis to the area. Abdullah told reporters in Hermel that illicit plants could not be overlooked but that donor countries must assist the area as much as possible until farmers find profitable alternative crops, adding that donor states must not link their aid to Lebanon's political positions. He urged continued efforts to provide Hermel with services, announcing that a new secondary school would open in the area next week. The Bekaa is returning to drug production on a grand scale since the implementation of eradication programs 10 years ago. Pledges of foreign aid to encourage alternative crop farming in the region have not materialized. [end]
Pot Production Returns To Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, After 10 Years Of Government Eradication And Poverty When Lebanon wiped out the Bekaa valley's $500m-a-year cannabis industry in the 1990s, it was a catastrophe for the impoverished area. Its people are now returning to drug production to survive - and are ready to fight the government to protect their crops. High in the Bekaa valley, relaxing under a fig tree's shade, farmer Ali pours glasses of tea. This year, God willing - and the Lebanese army permitting - his harvest will be good. The spring rains have been generous and now even the gravel at the roadside is flecked with green. Hundreds of wind-blown seeds are germinating among the stones, and those with a second pair of leaves have the distinctive saw-toothed shape of cannabis sativa. "God planted them," Ali says with a grin. But God did not plant what is growing further up the hill. The two lower terraces have potatoes, but the rest - less easily seen from the road - are packed with cannabis plants, still only a few inches tall, but sturdy and growing well. It is on these fields that Ali, his wife, his parents and his six children pin their hopes for the coming year. Elsewhere in the valley, for thousands of other families, it is the same story. The Bekaa - noted also for smuggling and Hizbullah militancy - is returning to drug production on a grand scale. [continues 1598 words]
Imagine the scenario: You're glitzed in your finest nightclub attire, girating next to your friends on table tops to the pulse of techno beats - a regular Friday night at your favorite dance club. Suddenly the lights blare on, the CD scratches to silence and you look up, straight into the barrel of a machine gun. "Everybody relax - this is a drug bust," booms the command from a platoon of policemen straddling the bar-top. Sounds dramatic, but according to club owners, such an occurrence is neither unusual nor threatening. [continues 503 words]
A cannabis-eradication campaign worked. But nothing offered as an alternative has been as lucrative as the drug plant. HERMEL, Lebanon - Eight years after international pressure pushed the Lebanese government to eradicate cannabis farming, the illicit crop has made a strong comeback here in the fertile, sun-drenched Bekaa Valley. Cannabis is the hemp plant from which marijuana and hashish are made. "People are hungry; we need to feed our families. We know drugs are haram [forbidden by God], but isn't starving your children haram too?" asked one mother of six from the town of Hermel. For the first time in eight years, she has planted 12 acres of marijuana. She knows she might go to jail for this, but is willing to take the risk so she can afford to send her children to school again. [continues 606 words]
BAALBEK, Lebanon -- Hussein Jaafar, former drug farmer turned dairyman, struggles to eke out a living from a half-dozen Pennsylvania milking cows while fervently wishing day and night for just one thing. He longs to grow cannabis, the crop from which hashish is made, again. "Let them come and take their cows back wherever they came from," said Jaafar, a thin man whose furrowed brow and receding black hair makes him seem older than his 32 years. "I will even forgive them my down payment. I swear if the government would let me grow just 500 square meters of hashish, I would sell them." [continues 706 words]
When Cannabis Was King: 'Take Back The Cows' BAALBEK, Lebanon Hussein Jaafar, former drug farmer turned dairyman, struggles to eke out a living from a half-dozen Pennsylvania milking cows while fervently wishing day and night for just one thing. He longs to grow cannabis, the crop from which hashish is made, again. "Let them come and take their cows back wherever they came from," said Mr. Jaafar. "I will even forgive them my down payment. I swear if the government would let me grow just 500 square meters of hashish, I would sell them." These are difficult days in the Bekaa region of Lebanon, the season when farmers in the once lawless valley used to seed their fields with cannabis and opium poppies, now banned. Given the deepening economic problems, farmers throughout the region are itching to resurrect their outlaw traditions. [continues 1014 words]
BAALBEK, Lebanon - Hussein Jaafar, former opium poppy farmer turned dairyman, struggles to eke out a living from a half-dozen Pennsylvania milking cows while fervently wishing day and night for just one thing. He longs to grow cannabis, the crop from which hashish is derived, again. "Let them come and take their cows back wherever they came from," said Mr. Jaafar, a thin man whose furrowed brow and receding black hair makes him seem older than his 32 years. "I will even forgive them my down payment. I swear if the government would let me grow just 500 square meters of hashish, I would sell them." [continues 1538 words]
Drug cultivation is back in the Bekaa, according to Baalbek-Hermel MP Hussein Husseini. Husseini, who met President Emile Lahoud Monday for talks on the country's socio-economic problems, said that "in my view, dealing with agricultural issues is no less important than dealing with the economic crisis and public debt." Husseini said that like the government, he opposes planting cannibas in Baalbek-Hermel region, but that illegal crops still exist. "In fact, cannabis cultivation has again spread because the state abandons its responsibility toward this region and its inhabitants," he said. Army helicopters dropped leaflets over the region Friday warning against drug cultivation, but Husseini said the real solution involved implementing a development plan and supporting alternative crops. [end]
Inside Lebanon
