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.

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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]