Lebanon's legalisation of cannabis for medical use has been praised by politicians who highlighted its potential to shore up the state’s debt-ridden coffers, but locals and specialists warned that it could increase corruption.
MP Antoine Habchi, who worked on a draft version of the bill, said it was a “major accomplishment” and could provide work opportunities for poverty-stricken regions of the country.
“The bill, in its final form, has taken into consideration international standards, quality control, anti-monopoly measures, and a dynamic model of public private management,” said Mr Habchi, who sat on a parliamentary committee that studied the legalisation of cannabis for more than a year.
MP Yassine Jaber, who headed the committee, said that the new law "will create a new system that will attract farmers who are growing cannabis illegally”.
High-quality cannabis has been illegally grown for more than a century in the rich soil of the Bekaa valley, in the east of the country, where labour is cheap.
Although the legalisation of cannabis has been on the table for years, Lebanon began seriously considering it in 2018, when consultants McKinsey & Co confirmed it could benefit Lebanon economically.
Former economy minister Raed Khoury embraced the idea, boasting that cannabis could become a $1 billion (Dh3.67bn) industry. Lebanon has been struggling with its worst financial crisis in history and defaulted for the first time on its foreign debt in early March.
A special regulatory authority working directly under the prime minister will supervise the distribution of licences to the private sector, although it is expected to take at least a year to set up. Farmers still face prosecution for growing cannabis illegally until then.
A local official from Brital, a town in the Bekaa where significant amounts of cannabis are grown, told The National that he was not convinced by the effectiveness of the new law.
“This project does not meet our aspirations. On the contrary, it helps to corrupt society,” said Mukhtar Ahmad Mohamed Tleiss.
“The problem is that … property owners own unregistered lands,” he said. “These lands have been inherited from our forefathers during the era of the French and the Turks.”
In many remote rural areas of Lebanon, particularly those close to the Syrian border, private property has never been formerly delineated by the state since its independence in 1943.
Though locals have informal ways of marking ownership, it would be difficult for farmers to enter a state supervised system of cannabis production for this reason, argued Mr Tleiss.
The state already has little control on the Bekaa region, he highlighted. “The government disengaged, and everything is in chaos now, especially amid the famine and hunger.”
Though Lebanese security forces used to fight drug cultivation and burn crops, they stopped when security issues spiked with the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Regaining control after nearly a decade of absence could be difficult, especially as local dealers could offer higher prices than the state, said Mr Tleiss.
Farmers have little trust in the state, which has tried to introduce alternative crops such as sunflowers, cumin and saffron over the past decades, but did not follow up with the necessary infrastructural support or compensations.
Hassan Makhlouf, a professor at Lebanese University who researches drug trafficking in Lebanon, agreed with Mr Tleiss.
“There are no strong state institutions in the Bekaa. Many people are protected [by political parties],” he said.
He warned that legal buyers would try to offer lower prices than those given by drug dealers, encouraging a parallel market. “Private buyers must pay market price to encourage socio-economic development in the Bekaa region,” he said.
Producing cannabis, which does not need much care, is profitable for farmers, who can make between US$10 to $12,000 per hectare per year, according to Mr Makhlouf’s calculations. This is an important sum in the region, where there are few employment opportunities.
Currently, cannabis production injects about $500 million a year into the local economy through traders and farmers, said Mr Makhlouf. Most of the profits – around $2 billion – go to international traffickers.
There is also a more important sticking point: the new law only legalises cannabis that contains less than one per cent of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
Lebanese cannabis contains up to 18 per cent THC, meaning that genetically modified plants and seeds would have to be imported to conform to the new standards necessary for medicinal use, said Mr Makhlouf, who opposes the idea.
The risk is that farmers might mix plants because the new variety would look exactly like the old one, argued Mr Makhlouf. “The leaf’s shape, size and smell are exactly the same. We would need hundreds of experts to check that the right type of cannabis is being used, driving costs up,” he said.
Instead of focusing on medicinal and industrial use, the state should export local cannabis to countries that have legalised its recreational consumption in the Americas and Europe and produce oil from the plant for medicinal use.
This could generate billions of dollars for the state each year. If managed well and according to these guidelines, cannabis could become Lebanon’s “green gold,” said Mr Makhlouf.
Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania
Verdict: 4 Stars
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
Started: July 2016
Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori
Based: Bangalore, India
Sector: Health & wellness
Size: 500 employees
Investment: $250 million
Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Neil Thomson – THE BIO
Family: I am happily married to my wife Liz and we have two children together.
Favourite music: Rock music. I started at a young age due to my father’s influence. He played in an Indian rock band The Flintstones who were once asked by Apple Records to fly over to England to perform there.
Favourite book: I constantly find myself reading The Bible.
Favourite film: The Greatest Showman.
Favourite holiday destination: I love visiting Melbourne as I have family there and it’s a wonderful place. New York at Christmas is also magical.
Favourite food: I went to boarding school so I like any cuisine really.
Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 268hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: CVT auto
Fuel consumption: 9.5L/100km
On sale: now
Price: from Dh195,000
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Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
