While recreational cannabis may still be illegal in the North African country of Morocco, the nation is kicking off a new era of legal cannabis cultivation and export. As the third month of 2024 comes to a close, the country has shared data about its first legal harvest season in 2023.

According to Morocco’s cannabis regulators, National Agency for the Regulation of Cannabis-Related Activities (ANRAC), the country’s first legal harvest in 2023 was 294 metric tons. It involved 32 cooperatives comprising 430 farms spanning 277 hectares in the northern Rif Mountains of Al Houceima, Taounat and Chefchaouen, according to ANRAC.

First reported by Reuters, the United Nations drugs agency also noted that approximately 47 hectares of the Rif Mountains are dedicated to cannabis output. However, that’s only about a third of the amount Morocco had in 2003 due to government crackdowns on illicit operations. 

The region has long been used for cannabis cultivation, where farmers have long used the crop to support their villages.

Morocco Embraces a New Era of Cannabis

The country legalized cannabis cultivation for medical and industrial use in 2021, with the government citing opportunities to boost revenue, create jobs and protect the environment as Morocco pressed forward with the new chapter. The country has been a long-time producer of illicit hashish, but with the highly anticipated opening of the European cannabis market, the hope is that it will soon be a key supplier to its northern neighbor’s blossoming industry.

ANRAC was then created in 2022, made to oversee the entire cannabis system involving growers, cultivators and processors while authorizing and certifying all cannabis cultivation and exportation activities.

Morocco’s first growing season began in June 2023. According to a Morocco World News report, importing seeds for cultivation generally begins in April, though indigenous varieties like the Moroccan landrace Beldia are sown in February — a testament to the country’s commitment to preserving its cannabis history while still catering to the emerging legal market.

The outlet also noted that Morocco granted 609 authorizations last year in its ongoing effort to formalize the new sector, alongside the certification of 2.1 million cannabis seeds in 2023.

Currently, two legal cannabis transformation units are operating with two others waiting for equipment. According to ANRAC, 15 cannabis products are currently in the process of being authorized for medical use. Thinking beyond its own borders, Morocco also awarded 54 export permits in 2023.

Examining the Past to Plan for the Future

Moving ahead, ANRAC is examining applications by 1,500 farmers organized into 130 cooperatives, and cultivation for Beldia has already begun. Cultivation for recreational use is still illegal, though it’s generally tolerated — especially in northern Morocco, where cannabis cultivation has stood as one of the primary economic activities in the region.

The legislation was created with this history in mind, in an attempt to improve the incomes of farmers while protecting them from drug traffickers who widely dominate the illicit trade and export of cannabis. While some farmers have embraced the change, others are more resistant and remain loyal to the members of the illicit drug trade who helped them to retain a steady income in past years.

It reflects a broader resistance to the change in the Rif region, given its rich cannabis-specific history, and it may take longer than just a couple years to get everyone on board.

“Cannabis has been in place in the region for centuries, and changing it from one day to the next is going to create resistance,” Khalid Mouna, a professor at Moulay Ismail University who studies Morocco’s cannabis economy, told Bloomberg last year.

While there are certain barriers for farmers, like upfront costs, administrative hurdles and challenging quality standards for small businesses and cultivators, Morocco has its fair share of advantages. Hanway Associates Co-Founder Alastair Moore told Bloomberg that Morocco already has an established cannabis reputation, potentially giving its products a built-in “stamp of legitimacy” as they are exported to new markets.

Still, experts like Moore argue that it’s unlikely Morocco will reach its full potential so long as cultivation is limited to medical and industrial markets.

“The real opportunity for Morocco in the long term is going to be in recreational because that’s where their brand is,” Moore said.

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Afghani poppy farmers are estimated to have lost over $1 billion in value or 95% of their opium supply since the Taliban outlawed opium production in April 2022, according to a new report from the United Nations. 

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime issued a press release Sunday noting that the drastic drop in opium production could have devastating and far-reaching consequences for the rural communities of Afghanistan and on the international supply of opium derivatives such as heroin that come from opium produced in the area.

Since the time of the ban, the U.N. estimated that Afghani land dedicated to opium poppy production has dwindled from 233,000 hectares in 2022 to 10,800 hectares in 2023 (for reference a hectare is 100 acres). The total supply of opium produced in the area, as aforementioned, dwindled 95% from 6,200 tons to just 333 representing a 92% drop in income for the poppy farmers of Afghanistan. 

“This presents a real opportunity to build towards long-term results against the illicit opium market and the damage it causes both locally and globally,” said Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC. “At the same time, there are important consequences and risks that need to be addressed for an outcome that is ultimately positive and sustainable, especially for the people of Afghanistan.

U.N. leadership warned that such a drastic reduction in the worldwide supply of opium could push traffickers more and more toward synthetic opium replacements, the most frequently used of which is fentanyl which has already seen a dramatic increase in use since the United States began cracking down on opiate-based pharmaceuticals. A BBC report in June of this year estimated that Afghani grown opium accounted for more than 80% of the world’s opium supply. Heroin derived from Afghani-made opium also accounted for 95% of the heroin supply in Europe.

The press release also indicated that methamphetamine production has increased in Afghanistan, presumably to replace the income lost from the opium trade. Another UNODC report from September indicated that Afghanistan was one of the world’s fastest growing producers of methamphetamine due to the legal availability of medications used to synthesize meth, as well as the ephedra plant, which just so happens to grow wild in the highlands of Afghanistan.

“Data on seizures indicate that traders are selling off their opium inventories from past record harvests to weather the shortfall in 2023, while heroin processing has decreased,” the press release said. “Trafficking in other drugs, namely methamphetamine, has surged in the region. Though there are high levels of opiate use within Afghanistan, evidence-based treatment options remain limited.”

The loss of income from poppy growing represents a dire threat to a region that is already considered to be very poor. Much of Afghanistan depends on agricultural-related sources of income to survive and years of drought combined with the Taliban taking power in 2021 have added additional strain to an already-unstable region. A Reuters report estimated that 30% of the total GDP of Afghanistan comes from agriculture.

“Nearly eighty percent of the population depends on agriculture, and Afghanistan already faces acute water scarcity challenges,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. “Sustainable alternative development efforts must be oriented towards drought-resistant agricultural activities and the effective protection and use of resources.”

Until the Taliban enacted the opium ban, the GDP of the opiate trade far exceeded the total GDP of the country. According to the U.N. many Afghani farmers have opted to grow wheat instead of opium poppies since the ban, increasing the national output by 160,000 hectares. Though this may relieve some food insecurity, the U.N. estimates this will not be anywhere near enough to make up for the lost value from the opium trade.

“Today, Afghanistan’s people need urgent humanitarian assistance to meet their most immediate needs, to absorb the shock of lost income and to save lives,” Executive Director Waly said. “And over the coming months, Afghanistan is in dire need of strong investment in sustainable livelihoods, to provide Afghan farmers with opportunities away from opium.”

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If only it was scratch n sniff.

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Including Gush Mints, Grapes and Cream, and Glitterbomb.

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Listen along for some top tips to conserve those terps.

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Master cannabis horticulture author Ed Rosenthal has the details.

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For the first time since Heath Canada began tracking it after legalization, they report that over a quarter of their domestic cannabis crop was destroyed in 2021. Over 425 million grams, a full 26% of the unpackaged dried flower produced last year was destroyed, along with all the resources that went into growing it, leading to an environmental nightmare for a supposedly green industry. 

Glut of Unsellable Products Leads to Astronomical Rate of Product Destruction

In addition to the unpackaged dried cannabis that was destroyed, more than 140 million grams of unpackaged extracts (17%), edibles (4%), and topicals were destroyed (4%). If that wasn’t bad enough, more than 7 million packaged products were also destroyed (on average, 3% of the total). The percent of the crop destroyed has gone up every year that Health Canada has data available, with last year seeing a dramatic increase from 19% to 26%, but experts suspect that is still an undercount. “The 425 million grams destroyed is likely only a fraction of the cannabis that was grown but has no market, tons of product remains in inventory in various formats,” says Stewart Maxwell, a crop consultant and founder of Elevated Botanist, adding “I have seen fresh frozen product offered on the market that is several years old.”

Tammy Jarbeau, Senior Media Relations Advisor for Health Canada, told High Times that the reasons for product destruction “include, but are not limited to: crop losses; post-harvest disposal of unusable plant material (e.g., stalks); recalled products; and elimination of unsold or returned products.” Maxwell noted that when it comes to packaged products, “any typo on a label can cause a recall,” which may be a contributing factor to the millions of packaged products destroyed. While, thankfully, “Producers must have recall insurance,” that costs tens of thousands of dollars per year. Unfortunately, Jarbeau was clear that, due to how they collect their data, Health Canada does not know “the amount or percent of cannabis destruction that can be attributed to recalled products.”

Quantities of Unpackaged Cannabis Destroyed (January – December 2021)

Quantities of Packaged Cannabis Destroyed (January – December 2021)

Source: Health Canada

The Root Cause Of Oversupply – Speculative Investment

The huge increase in crop destruction last year is quite paradoxical, as it came at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic drove up cannabis sales in Canada. So, while sales were very good, they were not good enough to deal with a severe oversupply in the market. Jarbeau called the destruction “a part of normal business practices” and attributed the escalating rate of destruction to “the increase in number of the federal license holders since 2018.” Maxwell had a more pointed view, “The glut of product on the market is entirely a factor of overproduction driven by investment hype.” At the onset of legalization, many large companies “were able to raise billions on promises to dominate a brand-new industry,” using square footage of cannabis canopy as a selling point, which Maxwell says led to “an exponential overbuilding of cultivation facilities.” Making matters worse, that cannabis was not very good and didn’t sell, which led to “many of these facilities were shuttered,” such as the Aurora Sky facility in Edmonton. 

An Environmental Catastrophe with Incalculable Costs

Maxwell says that based on the typical cost of goods sold, “the cost of the product destroyed is in the billions,” but that doesn’t take into account the cost of the facilities themselves and other resources spent to grow the cannabis. “This overproduction is an environmental catastrophe and the energy required to cultivate this glut is incalculable,” says Maxwell, “When facilities costing tens of millions of dollars are built, then closed without ever producing product of any quality, the destruction of capital and energy resources is astounding.” 

When asked if they collect information on the water, fertilizer, and other resources used when growing cannabis, Jarbeau told High Times that “Health Canada does not collect this information from license holders.” That means there is no way to accurately know exactly how much of and which resources were destroyed along with those 425 million grams of cannabis. This is one area where data collection can be improved both in Canada and the US to better understand how cannabis can be most efficiently grown.

Can Remediation Be Salvation?

You may be wondering, with billions of dollars of cannabis being destroyed every year, who is left in the red? Maxwell says that “Cannabis producers, and their investors are the losers here, and consumers are the winners.” Costs have dropped consistently both in Canada and around the US, where “it is now possible to purchase an ounce of decent weed for just over a hundred bucks.” According to Maxwell, that plummeting price has “almost entirely disrupted the legacy market,” and even growers using artisanal methods to produce premium flower “struggle to achieve profitability due to the glut of product on the market, excise tax issues, and the regulatory cost burden.” 

Anyone familiar with the cannabis industry has likely heard the term “remediation” before, meaning, to remedy something, which can range from methods of reducing contaminants in a product (pesticides, heavy metals) or reducing the THC content of a hemp product to ensure it legally can be sold as hemp. Remediation is a way for cannabis producers to salvage a batch of products that otherwise would be unable to be sold, and would be a massive waste of money and resources. 

Unfortunately, it does not appear that remediation is an option here. “To my knowledge, there is no avenue to direct excess cannabis flower to other product streams,” says Maxwell, “The product must be destroyed as per Health Canada guidelines,” which include incineration, composting, or mixing with kitty litter. “It may be possible for cannabis to be used in other applications,” says Jarbeau, “however, depending on the activity, it could still be subject to the requirements under the Cannabis Act and its regulations as well as requirements under other Acts and regulations.” Those regulations and requirements can be pretty burdensome, to the point where attempts to remediate products might not even be worth it. One bright spot Jarbeau mentioned was that “Certain cannabis plant parts (e.g. mature stalks stripped of their leaves, flowers, seeds, and branches) … are exempted from the application of the Cannabis Act,” and could be remediated into other uses without a license.

Bigger Than Canada, Bigger Than Cannabis

Unfortunately, the problem of widescale product destruction is not unique to Canada or to the cannabis industry. While Canada destroyed 26% of their unsold or unsellable cannabis flower last year, the US destroyed nearly 11% of our hemp crop because it tested “hot,” above the 0.3% THC limit. While 11% is the average, it is much worse in some states, like Tennessee, where the Department of Agriculture reports “42% of crops are being found non-compliant.”

While the reasons are different, the end result is the same, millions of pounds of cannabis and hemp plants being destroyed rather than used to make products, with investors, farmers, and other businesses left in the red. And remember, it isn’t just the cannabis being destroyed here, but all the water, fertilizer, and other resources that went into growing it. On a deeper level, in many cases it is someone’s dream being destroyed as well, with legacy farmers being forced out of the industry they created while being offered insultingly low prices for artisanal quality flower. 

Now that 2022 draws to a close, Health Canada will be compiling their data from this year, and if current trends hold, Canadian cannabis businesses will be destroying around 1/3 of their unpackaged cannabis crop next year. 

Follow Up After Hearing Back from Health Canada

“I didn’t realize that that number represented total cannabis waste destroyed,” says Maxwell. “Cannabis waste is regularly destroyed during the growing process and at harvest. The weight of this waste varies dramatically based on water content. Sometimes waste is destroyed right away, and the weight is mostly water weight. Other times the waste is weighed, then stored until there is a large amount, then weighed again, the discrepancy is justified in documentation as due to water loss, and the dry waste is then destroyed. As you can imagine, with all of these variables, it is not possible to determine which portion of the total waste would be saleable (but unsold) flower, as compared to stem and leaf waste. I would estimate that for every gram of saleable flower, 2 or more grams would be destroyed as unusable byproduct.

“It would be much more interesting to know the ratio of finished saleable product produced, relative to the annual consumption in Canada,” Maxwell adds. “This would give a much better insight into the scale of overproduction. I would estimate that the vast majority of finished product that is destroyed is excess product rather than recalled product. I hope this helps.”

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According to The Charlotte Observer, the cultivation site is located in the eastern part of the state in The Qualla Boundary. In addition to beginning its first harvest on Nov. 18, the tribe also plans to open the largest medical cannabis dispensary in the state sometime in 2023, which will be located in an old building previously used for bingo. “I’m really proud of my tribe taking this step, one with the betterment of this community in mind,” said general manager of Qualla Enterprises LLC, Forrest Parker.

The cannabis business is expected to create 400 to 500 new jobs (with “several hundred” applications already received for various positions), which will increase the EBCI’s total employment number to 7,500. “Most special to me is the employment opportunity,” Parker said. “We can teach them skills they can use for the rest of their lives in what is a very well-paying industry.” Over the summer, the EBCI employed about 40 people to work on cultivation, with about 80% of them members of the tribe.

The EBCI’s Tribal Council approved Ordinance No. 539, which legalized medical cannabis on tribal land in August 2021. Far beyond the state’s progress on medical cannabis legislation, the Tribal Council saw cannabis as a benefit for medical patients. “The Council’s approval of a medical marijuana ordinance is a testament to the changing attitudes toward legal marijuana and a recognition of the growing body of evidence that supports cannabis as medicine, particularly for those with debilitating conditions like cancer and chronic pain,” said Principal Chief Richard Sneed.

According to the EBCI cannabis website, the tribe will control all aspects of production. “It all begins as a seed…and develops into the plant that is the basis to all cannabis. EBCI Farms will be the source for all of its products that are sold to the public. Everything from seed to sale begins here,” the website states. Currently, the business plans to produce cannabis flower, pre-rolls, edibles, concentrates, and topicals.

“It’s a vertical market. We have to plant it. We have to cultivate it. We have to harvest it. We have to process it. We have to package it and move through all of that network of product and get it there. It’s a lot of people,” Parker told ABC13 News.

The ECBI also has its own Cannabis Control Board, which consists of five healthcare and law enforcement experts, to manage the tribe’s cannabis regulations. Current rules dictate that non-tribe members may purchase up to one ounce of cannabis per day, but not to exceed more than six ounces in a month. This also extends to a limit of 2,500 milligrams of THC in products per day, but not more than 10,000 milligrams in a month.

The New York-based Oneida Indian Nation announced in September that it would launch a seed-to-sale cannabis business sometime in 2023. Also in New York, the Saint Regis (Akwesasne) Mohawk Tribe partnered with actor Jim Belushi to open a dispensary on Oct. 27, called Belushi’s Farm Akwesasne.

Additionally, the Seneca Nation of Indians announced that its building a cannabis dispensary in the city of Niagara Falls, New York, which is slated to open in February 2023 as well. “After extensive research and planning, the Seneca Nation is excited to create a new, Nation-owned business in the growing and competitive cannabis market,” said Seneca Nation President Rickey Armstrong Sr.

There are many tribe-owned and operated cannabis dispensaries throughout the country already, including Mountain Source Santa Ysabel operated by the Iipay Nation Tribe (located northeast of San Diego), to the Paiute-owned NuWu Cannabis Marketplace in Nevada, and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe’s Joint Rivers dispensary in Washington State.

The Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association (ICIA) hosted the National Indigenous Cannabis Policy Summit on Nov. 15-16 in Washington, D.C., which covered a variety of topics in relation to create solutions to common challenges that tribes face in the industry. “The Summit brings together Tribal leaders, elected and government officials, business, healthcare, veterans groups, and advocacy organizations to provide solutions to the most pressing challenges and opportunities growing for Indian Country,” the event website states.

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Harvest and sales numbers both plunged last month in Oregon, and the result could be cheaper cannabis for consumers.

That is the upshot of a report by local news station KOIN, which cited the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s data showing “that in October 2021, nearly $94 million went to the state’s cannabis industry,” while last month, the industry received only about $79 million in total sales.

The station reported that the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission also “reported 5.3 million wet pounds harvested by all producers” in October of last year, while last month, “that number fell to 4.1 million.”

“The September/October time frame is a harvest ‘window’ for outdoor cannabis grows in southern Oregon,” Mark Pettinger, spokesperson for the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission told the station. “The actual harvest time is based on when cannabis farmers get their crop in the ground. Late rains pushed out the planting time this year. Also, the lengthy sunny and warm weather this fall probably affected decisions about when to harvest.”

“On the demand side, cannabis sales saw some significant spikes during the pandemic when consumers had fewer choices on how to use their discretionary income. Also, there was a fair amount of federal stimulus money that probably accounted for some of those increases. Since legalization in 2016 Oregon cannabis sales had been experiencing steady year-over-year increases,” Pettinger added.

Indeed, after cannabis retailers across the country saw a dramatic bump in sales in the age of quarantine, the industry has careened back to earth in recent months, particularly as inflation continues to tighten consumers’ pocketbooks. 

KOIN reported in August that the “pandemic boom may be coming to an end for Oregon’s cannabis industry,” with the state experiencing a steady decline in revenue from April onward. That downward trend followed two consecutive years in which the state topped $1 billion in sales.

“In June, sales totalled $82,723,244. It’s only the second time sales have dropped below $84 million since the start of the pandemic,” the station reported at the time. Experts said there are several factors contributing to the decrease in dollars sold, a few of which include consumer trends, the role inflation is playing on the market and the price at which retailers can sell their products.”

Oregon marijuana consumers who are feeling the pinch of inflation may enjoy some relief from this trend. As KOIN reported, the drop in prices “may benefit consumers who want the same quality of cannabis for less money, but buyers and sellers in the industry are put at a disadvantage.”

“The way that all states have set up their system is that whatever you grow and produce and do product manufacturing for and retail, it all has to be contained within the state,” Beau Whitney, a cannabis industry consultant, told the local station. “When you have an ‘everything contained in the state’ mentality, there’s not enough consumers to go around to handle all of that supply right in the state… when there’s oversupply and not enough demand, then prices go down because firms will get desperate. They’ll want to sell their product.”

“What cultivators have done is they’ve stopped cultivating,” Whitney added. “They’ve reduced the amount of square feet or acres that they’re deploying for further cannabis cultivation because if they grow it, but they can’t sell it, then what’s the point? It’s just like throwing money down the toilet.”

Oregon voters legalized adult-use cannabis by approving a ballot measure in 2014. Legal pot sales began the following year. 

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An historic crop is beginning to sprout in the Empire State. As New York inches closer to the launch of its adult-use cannabis market, the state’s inaugural cultivators are readying the first batch.

A report from the Associated Press on Wednesday put a spotlight on some of New York’s first legal recreational cannabis growers, who were awarded cultivation licenses back in April.

The AP highlighted “growers like Frank Popolizio of Homestead Farms and Ranch, where a small crew north of Albany earlier this month dug out shallow holes for seedlings before packing them in by hand.”

“It is an opportunity. There’s obviously going to be a demand for it,” Popolizio told the Associated Press. “And, hopefully, it benefits the farmers. Been a long time since there’s been a real cash crop.”

Popolizio is a recipient of the first roughly 200 licenses awarded to cultivators for New York’s forthcoming recreational cannabis market.

The state legalized recreational cannabis for adults last year, when former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that ended the prohibition and paved the way for a regulated cannabis market that is expected to launch by the end of this year.

But under Cuomo, the new marijuana program was slow to take shape, with key regulatory positions going unfilled for months.

After Cuomo resigned as governor last August amid allegations of sexual misconduct, he was replaced by Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat who made the launch of the adult-use cannabis program a priority. 

Within a month of taking office, Hochul completed a pair of appointments to the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, saying at the time that “New York’s cannabis industry has stalled for far too long.”

In April, the New York State Cannabis Control announced that it had approved the first 52 adult-use cannabis cultivation licenses, with the state’s established hemp farmers getting first dibs.

“New York’s farms have been the backbone of our state’s economy since before the American Revolution, and now, New York’s farms will be at the center of the most equitable cannabis industry in the nation,” Hochul said at the time. “I’m proud to announce the first adult-use cannabis cultivation licenses in the state, and I’m proud of the work the Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board are doing to get adult-use cannabis sales up and running as fast as possible without compromising our mission to uplift communities and individuals most impacted by the past century of cannabis prohibition.”

Hochul’s office said that those farmers “must adhere to quality assurance, health, and safety requirements developed by the [Office of Cannabis Management],” including participation in “sustainability and equity mentorship programs that will help build the first generation of equity cannabis owners across the entire supply chain.”

In its report this week, the Associated Press noted that giving a “head start for hemp growers is an unusual way to gear up a marijuana market,” citing an expert who said that “states typically rely initially on their existing medical growers.”

“But New York’s move is a potential lifeline for farmers growing their crop for CBD during a slump in prices,” the Associated Press reported. “They have a chance to make much more money growing what is essentially the same plant, but with higher levels of THC — the compound that makes people feel high.”

As for the recreational dispensary licenses, the state said earlier this year that the first 100 of those will go to applicants with previous pot-related convictions, or family members of individuals with pot-related convictions.

The state’s Office of Cannabis management said that the initiative is “something that has not been done before.”

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