The Lebanese parliament has authorised cannabis cultivation for medical use, becoming the first Arab country to do so.
In the aim to boost economy, there is a potential profit to be made from exporting the crop internationally. MP Alan Aoun said that the move would bring in government revenue and develop the agricultural sector.
“We have moral and social reservations but today there is the need to help the economy by any means,” he told Reuters.
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The idea of legalising cannabis cultivation, with a view to producing high value-added medical products for export, was discussed in a report prepared by McKinsey Consulting, commissioned by the Lebanese government in 2018, and it was estimated that the industry could be worth $1 billion (Dhs/SAR3.67 billion) a year.
Recreational use remains illegal, but cannabis can now be grown for textiles (hemp) to pharmaceuticals. Studies are ongoing, but the plant has been used to treat chronic pain, severe forms of epilepsy and nausea – sometimes offered to chemotherapy patients.
Last month, the Lebanese police carried out the largest drug campaign in the country, when they seized about 25 tonnes of hashish before smuggling it to an African country.
According to the UN, Lebanon is the third-largest supplier of cannabis resin after Morocco and Afghanistan, and is known to be farmed illegally in the country’s Bekaa Valley.
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