Albania plans to legalise the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes, six years after beginning a crackdown on an illegal trade that turned it, by some accounts, into Europe’s largest outdoor grower of cannabis., reports Reuters.*

Prime Minister Edi Rama said the time was ripe for one of Europe’s poorest countries to enter the lucrative market, emulating its neighbours North Macedonia, Greece and Italy – the latter a destination of tonnes of cannabis from Albania in 2015 and 2016.*

“Illegal cultivation is completely under control,” Rama told reporters in an online news conference. “This is the third or fourth year of consolidation. We plan to pass the bill in this session of parliament.”*

Before Rama led his Socialist Party to a landslide victory in 2013, the lawless enclave of Lazarat on the Greek border had been freely cultivating cannabis on an industrial scale for a decade and a half, untouched by state intervention.*

In a massive armed operation in June 2014, police ended the town’s illicit trade. But over the next two years, cannabis cultivation spread across most of Albania, casting doubt on its resolve to fight organised crime, as the European Union – which it hopes to join – had asked.*

On Saturday, after Rama answered a question on medical cannabis at a news conference with the head of the EU delegation in Tirana, the EU mission found itself obliged to tweet that neither it nor the European Commission had anything to do with the crop.*

Albania holds a parliamentary election next year, and the idea of regularising a potential source of jobs and money could be a vote-winner.*

Koco Kokedhima, a businessman who was the first to ask for the cultivation of medicinal cannabis to be legalised, and a former Rama ally turned bitter critic, said Rama “now appears to agree with our party’s project. We hail this turnaround”.*

But Agron Duka, head of the opposition Agrarian Environmentalist Party and a former agriculture minister, said: “Anything that helps economic growth is good. But as a state we have not applied the law correctly so it can be exploited negatively.”*

In Lazarat, the villagers were asking for a full criminal amnesty for those convicted on cannabis charges if the draft was approved – not merely the amnesty for dodging tax on illicit earnings that Rama is proposing in addition to the legalisation.*

Economic analyst Mentor Nazarko said that “the income might be limited but it would help the country to a degree”, before adding: “The European Union countries are sceptical.”*

More than two dozen countries permit the use of cannabis for medical purposes, although its precise benefits, notably in reducing nausea, pain or muscle spasms, are contentious.*

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The Lebanese Parliament adopted a law on Tuesday legalizing the cultivation of cannabis for therapeutic purposes, in a country plagued by the worst economic crisis in decades, amplified by the new coronavirus, reports AFP.

During the meeting in Beirut, demonstrators in cars protested MPs and the political class in general, accused of corruption and incompetence. They also crisscrossed other cities, including Tripoli (north) and Saïda (south).*

Meeting outside the hemicycle, in an auditorium that can accommodate up to 1,000 people in Beirut to allow social distancing, the deputies adopted the bill on the legalization of cannabis.*

This measure should garner revenues from the state, over-indebted and in default since March, for the first time in its history. AFP.*

Lebanon has long banned the production and consumption of cannabis, but the industry, which remained underground for a long time, has become a multi-million dollar industry.*

Its legalization had been proposed to the Lebanese authorities in a report by the international consultancy firm McKinsey & Cie, commissioned by Lebanon to prepare an economic recovery plan.*

– “Recover the money” -*

Lebanon has been going through its worst economic crisis in 30 years since last year, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and draconian containment measures.*

Deputies scheduled to last three days also approved a $ 120 million loan from the World Bank to help the health sector, $ 40 million of which was reallocated to combat covid-19.*

In Lebanon, 677 cases of contamination, including 21 deaths, have been officially recorded.*

Parliamentarians also passed a law to fight corruption in the public sector, while this scourge was one of the triggers for the unprecedented popular uprising in Lebanon in October 2019.*

At the rate of the horns, slogans and revolutionary songs, the Lebanese in the car demonstrated against the power.*

“We want to recover the stolen money,” said Jad Assaileh, a young protester, referring to allegations of embezzlement and the transfer by Lebanese officials of billions of dollars abroad.*

“I left because the state has done nothing so far. We have not seen any reform,” said Lina al-Adawi, 54, standing on the step of his 4×4.*

“The coronavirus has further aggravated the economic situation: unemployment, soaring exchange rate, poverty and hunger,” added the 50-year-old, wearing a mask and a red scarf.*

Lebanon is crumbling under a debt of 92 billion dollars, or 170% of the GDP, one of the highest rates in the world.*

The national currency has now reached its lowest level against the dollar in decades, while around 45% of the population now lives below the poverty line.*

– More dollars –

New sign of financial distress, banks no longer give dollars, the Central Bank published on Tuesday a circular asking these establishments to pay their customers wishing to withdraw green notes from their dollar accounts, the equivalent in Lebanese pounds at the rate exchange market.*

The Lebanese pound is now trading at over 3,200 pounds for a dollar on the parallel market, while the national currency has been pegged to the greenback since 1997 at a fixed rate of 1,507 pounds.*

Since October 2019, banks have imposed draconian restrictions on withdrawals, particularly in dollars – sometimes capping them at $ 100 per week.*

They are accused by the street of complicity with the political power and of having contributed to the unrestrained public debt and the bankruptcy of the State.*

The government is on the verge of announcing an economic rescue plan which will lead to the start of debt restructuring and possible external aid. The plan mentions financing needs of more than 80 billion dollars, including 10 to 15 billion in foreign aid over five years.*

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