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Lebanon Hashish Eradication Hits New Obstacle

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #745)
Politics & Advocacy

Last week, we reported on armed resistance against Lebanese government marijuana plant eradication teams in the Bekaa Valley, one of the world's leading hashish-producing regions. The country's Internal Security Forces (ISF) aren't having much easier going this week, though at least no one is shooting at them.

A Lebanese marijuana plot before being burned by eradicators (wikimedia.org)
But if no one is shooting, no one is cooperating, either, according to the Daily Star. The Beirut newspaper reported that the ISF had to postpone operations to destroy marijuana fields in Hermel Tuesday after it was unable to hire enough bulldozers to plow the plants under.

The bulldozer owners in the area are refusing to rent out their machinery for eradication operations out of fear they will be targeted by the marijuana growers. They pointed to skirmishes on the outskirts of Baalbek last week that left one policeman wounded and two police vehicles damaged. Of more direct concern to the bulldozer owners, 15 tractors were attacked during that incident, and the drivers said they were warned against participating in the crackdown.

ISF units accompanied by the Central Office of Drug Control and the Lebanese Army headed to Hermel to begin eradication there Tuesday morning, but had to abort the operation when the bulldozers failed to arrive. The Daily Star also reported that the forces on the ground decided to delay the operation "to avoid confrontations between prominent families in the area."

Lebanon is one of the world's leading hash producers, and the Bekaa Valley has long been known as a site of cannabis production. During the Lebanese civil war, the trade blossomed into a multi-billion dollar business, but after the war, the government banned it in 1992, and has undertaken eradication operations with varying degrees of enthusiasm each year since.

Farmers in the Bekaa say their area has been poor and marginalized for decades and that attempts to come up with substitute crops have been ineffective. Efforts to get farmers to switch to crops like sunflowers, saffron, and tobacco have not gone well, with the crops proving unsuitable for the environment and not as profitable as marijuana, and support for crop substitution programs has been inconsistent.

The eradicators have about another month to get at the sticky cash crop before Lebanese harvest season begins in earnest.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Mazx (not verified)

Dear People,

    Ollie North cut down the cannabis crop and planted opium some time in the 80's; bad, bad, bad. Hashish is not so bad; found out that some experiments were done detoxing addicts from opium with sodium ascorbate a vitamin C analogue. See Archie Kalokerino's posts in the nutritional medicine section at www.whale.to. 

Thu, 08/02/2012 - 7:31pm Permalink
Mazx (not verified)

Ollie North cut down cannabis and planted opium during 80's Sux.

Thu, 08/02/2012 - 7:33pm Permalink
Joe Curwen (not verified)

Lebanese hashish is the stuff of legends, the threads of which dreams are weaved. For Lebanon to eradicate hashish would be like California eradicating its vinyards: unthinkable. When I was a youth, four decades back, we never saw better than the hashish of Lebanon. Why destroy such an esteemed part of your patrimony?

Thu, 08/02/2012 - 9:00pm Permalink
fupenvchr (not verified)

In reply to by Joe Curwen (not verified)

all of the hash I make after trimming in Cali is superior to any of the Lebanese hash I've had, which is a lot. the hash my friend got in Colorado was also way better. they probably keep the good hash in Lebanon for themselves

Fri, 08/03/2012 - 1:58am Permalink
maxreger (not verified)

Last week a vindictive colonel said failure to sabotage the cannabis crop would damage Lebanon's "international reputation"-- which actually consists of approval by US military experts who impose a pro-tobacco standard worldwide in the guise of "anti-drug" enforcement, with "various kinds of assistance" available to little countries which cooperate.  The center of this problem is the USA $igarette industry and its $$ bribe and lobby power assuring disproportionate influence over governments worldwide through the US military monopoly.  Americans can and must stand up for cannabis liberty in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Colombia and elsewhere.  (Hint: don't vote for any Republicans until they break their connection with Big 2WackGo.)

 Someone please take time to hunt down anything specific related to cannabis in the Qur'an, my impression is the main message there is Moderation.  I think if instead of rolling a 500-mg joint, and for a few minutes hotburning away unvaporized cannabinoids and inhaling more dopy carbon monoxide instead, you served up to five 25-mg single tokes a day in a CHOOMETTE using the distant lighter vape technique, you would be properly Submitted, and ready to form a coalition with activist Muslims who oppose alcohol marketing.

Fondly as I remember "Red Lebanese", hashish is obsolete.  When cannabis is legalized everywhere, there will be no special benefit in pressing compact, unsmelly cakes (for storage and smuggling), rather the smelly kief can be delivered a gram at a time in LA-Cons hinged-lid #750150 polyethylene cannisters, suction-loaded 25-mg at a time into the screened crater of your long-stemmed CHOOMETTE and vaped in a smooth dignified way.  The false belief in "smoking" led Europeans to mix hashish with tobacco in a "joint" to help it burn "better"-- and resulting in many unintended nicotine addictions so that today $igarette addiction in Europe is actually worse than in the USA where most users toke their cannabis "pure".  (To the rescue: for the first time in world history, a political party, CLEAR = Cannabis Law Reform (UK), now features "Toke Pure" as a plank in its platform!)

Thu, 08/02/2012 - 10:09pm Permalink
fupenvchr (not verified)

hash sucks compared to oil. Lebanese hash can vanish from the face of the earth for all I care seeing as oil is easier to handle, more pure,works 10x better, can be vaped more easily, is easier to make, oh and doesn't taste like ass...errr hash

Fri, 08/03/2012 - 2:08am Permalink
gypski (not verified)

To get the straight skinny on hashish, read Hashish! by Robert Connell Clarke.  And there you will find that mostly all export hashish is a blended hashish and the finest powder is kept by the grower/sifter/presser and the rest of the folks get the following sifts blended.

Fri, 08/03/2012 - 8:26pm Permalink
McD (not verified)

“Someone please take time to hunt down anything specific related to cannabis in the Qur'an, my impression is the main message there is Moderation.”

No, Max, I’m afraid not. I went down this road a couple of years ago; joined an Islam forum (Islamica.com, if memory serves.) and made a couple posts on the topic with the specific intention of addressing precisely this question you’re asking. I’ve lost that correspondence now, but the long and the short of it looked like this: http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/islam-dir/115541-cannabis-islam.html. They're all pretty much of a muchness, these off-planet-father-figure-god, authoritarian, e.g. Abrahamic, religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - there's not much difference between them - all working on the same dysfunctional principles.

Since then, I’ve done a lot of reading about the Gnostics, and particularly the work of John Lash (‘Not In His Image’). If you're curious enough to scratch the surface of the topic, I’d suggest listening to him being interviewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCzfgGK57ZI. (This interview is in lots of other places if it disappears from there; just look for, 'John Lash entheogens Red Ice 2008'.) Joseph Farrell, who was on Red Ice recently (‘Yahweh The Two-Faced God’ http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/2012/07/RIR-120729.php) has some interesting things to say, as well. (You can cut to the chase by skipping the first half and starting thirty-eight minutes in, but you’ll miss a lot of important background.)

Now, I think it’s most accurately and succinctly summarised thus: all of this 'war-on-drugs' nonsense is just a smokescreen for the Abrahamic religions' ongoing repression of gnosis, keeping the genie in the bottle with smoke and mirrors - Hollywood et al. goes to the UN and war through Washington and the Pentagon; or, as the Archons themselves (might) say, "We shall win through deception." (Google it.) HAL!

Mon, 08/06/2012 - 11:50am Permalink
burningbush (not verified)

Yes, it's all about "powers and principalities". The only popularly known form of the Abrahamic faiths that make sense or sensi is Rasta - seen?!!!

It's been said that mystics of diverse religions have more in common with each other than they do with members of their own religion.

Wed, 08/08/2012 - 5:41pm Permalink
burningbush (not verified)

Yes, it's all about "powers and principalities". The only popularly known form of the Abrahamic faiths that make sense or sensi is Rasta - seen?!!!

It's been said that mystics of diverse religions have more in common with each other than they do with members of their own religion.

Wed, 08/08/2012 - 5:43pm Permalink

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