Video | High times: Morocco’s growing number of cannabis tourists
Mountainous Rif region is the North African country’s main cannabis production area, and despite the drug being illegal, increasing crowds of European tourists are going on cannabis tours in Ketama and Chefchaouen
It may not feature in Morocco’s official tourism brochures but cannabis attracts thousands of visitors a year to the North African country.
At a hotel bar in the northern region of Ketama, German tourist Beatrix makes no attempt to hide the joint she is rolling.
The 57-year-old says she fell in love with the area for “the quality of its hashish and the friendliness of its residents”.
Hassan, a forty-something wearing a conspicuous gold watch, says cannabis is their main source of wealth .“The climate here is very special. Nothing grows here except kif,” he says, using a Moroccan name for the drug.
While Moroccan law bans the sale and consumption of the drug, that has not stopped farmers growing vast plantations of it, providing a living for some 90,000 households, according to official figures for 2013, the most recent available.
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Smoking kif is seen as part of the local culture, and is largely tolerated by the authorities.
Beatrix was among the organisers of the mid-September “Bombola Ganja” festival, essentially an evening gathering of smokers at a hotel swimming pool.
Ketama hosts thousands of tourists a year, mostly from Europe but also from other parts of Morocco.
“People are attracted by the mountains, the hiking, the climate,” says hotel director Abdelhamid.
But it has also been famed for its cannabis since the 1960s, when it became popular with hippies seeking the high life.
Later it gained a reputation for lawlessness, and by the late 1990s guidebooks were advising tourists to avoid the region entirely.
Hashish has helped put the town of Chefchaouen, high in the hills 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the west and now buzzing with visitors, well and truly on the map.
“Now, non-smokers also come for the blue of the city, highly appreciated by Chinese tourists.”
Famed for its narrow alleys lined with striking blue houses, the town is also the main urban centre of a region famed for its cannabis production.
Small-time dealers and unlicensed guides approach tourists to offer them hashish or a tour of nearby farms to meet the “kifficulteurs” – local cannabis producers.
On the terrace of a strategically located cafe, dealer Mohamed approaches potential buyers, showing them a large pellet of hash and offering a “field visit” to see how the cannabis is processed.
After gathering a group of tourists, he takes them to a nearby village.
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Standing in a field, with cannabis plantations covering the hillsides as far as the eye can see, he point out the varieties being cultivated.
“Here you have the Mexican plant, the Afghan and the beldia (Arabic for domestic),” he says.
Most farmers in the area import seeds to ensure a bigger harvest, he adds.
Nearby, a group of young French tourists cross the plantation with another guide.
The two groups meet in front of a modest building where a farmer taps a container full of cannabis clippings, collecting the finely powdered resin in a bucket below.
Dressed in a Paris Saint-Germain football jersey, one of them says he has just bought a batch of the drug worth US$230.
Women from the village watch the scene with amusement as chickens peck around the cottage.
The farmer takes the bucket to his workshop and returns a few minutes later with the finished product – a block of hashish.
“Here, you smoke where you want, except in front of the police station,” Mohamed says.