The Rif Mountains of northern Morocco — particularly the Ketama and Chefchaouen regions — have grown cannabis for centuries. The plant was traditionally cultivated for kif — a mixture of dried cannabis flowers and tobacco smoked in a long-stemmed pipe (sebsi). Kif culture was embedded in rural Riffian society, tolerated by authorities, and largely ignored by the rest of the country.
The scale changed in the 1960s and 1970s. European demand for hashish — concentrated cannabis resin — transformed subsistence cultivation into an industrial crop. The Rif became one of the world's largest hashish-producing regions. Estimates suggest Morocco produces thousands of tonnes of cannabis resin annually, with most exported to Europe via Spain.
The economics are stark. In the Rif's mountainous terrain, cannabis is significantly more profitable than any legal alternative. A hectare of cannabis earns a farmer roughly ten times what a hectare of wheat or barley produces. With limited irrigation, poor roads, and thin soil, the Rif has few viable alternatives. An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 families depend on cannabis cultivation.
Law 13-21, passed in 2021, legalised cannabis cultivation for medical, pharmaceutical, and industrial purposes. The law created a regulatory framework — licensed growers, processing facilities, and export permits. The stated goal is to transition farmers from illegal hashish production to legal medical cannabis and hemp, capturing value in the formal economy.
Implementation is slow. The regulatory agency — ANRAC — has begun licensing, but the transition from illicit to legal supply chains is complex. International pharmaceutical companies have expressed interest. The potential is significant — Morocco's climate, existing agricultural knowledge, and low labour costs position it competitively in the global medical cannabis market.
The social reality is layered. Cannabis sustains the Rif economically but also traps it in illegality and vulnerability. Farmers are subject to arrest under laws that coexist uneasily with the new legalisation framework. The Rif's cannabis economy is both a survival strategy and a development challenge.
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The Facts
- —Rif Mountains: primary growing region
- —Morocco: one of world's largest cannabis producers
- —Estimated 47,000 hectares under cultivation
- —~800,000 people depend on cannabis economy
- —Legal reform 2021: regulated medical/industrial use
- —Recreational use still illegal
- —Kif: traditional Moroccan cannabis preparation
- —European market: primary destination for Moroccan hashish
Sources
- Chouvy, Pierre-Arnaud. "Morocco Said to Produce Nearly Half of the World's Hashish Supply." Jane's Intelligence Review
- Moreno, Jonathan. "Cannabis and the Rif." The Journal of North African Studies
- Pennell, C.R. Morocco Since 1830. NYU Press, 2000
