Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has pardoned nearly 4,800 people convicted, prosecuted or wanted on charges linked to illegal cannabis cultivation, the justice ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The pardon aims to encourage farmers “to engage in the legal process of cannabis cultivation to improve their revenue and living conditions,” Mohammed El Guerrouj, head of the Moroccan cannabis regulator Anrac, told Reuters.
“This is an exceptional initiative that will allow these farmers and their families to live in serenity and tranquillity, and to participate in the new dynamic of legalisation,” El Guerrouj told AFP.
The North African country is the world’s leading producer of cannabis, according to the United Nations.
In 2021, the…
