February 2009 Archives

I do not encourage either the production or the consumption of marijuana, but my only real policy concern related to either of them is the undesirable social effects of interdiction.

When I read a a self-congratulatory proclamation that marijuana cultivation has been significantly reduced in areas such as the Rif Mountains of Morocco, estimated to account for half the world's hashish production, it raises a question in my mind which almost always goes unaddressed.

If cultivation of marijuana in the Rif has been significantly suppressed, what exactly are the farmers and the families in this notoriously poor region of Morocco doing to support themselves? Have the governments that are suppressing cultivation (we are not told how), provided roads, schools, and jobs so that people in the Rif can make a living by other means? Curious minds would like to know.

Facebook has a Friends of Morocco group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16329050138

Abdelilha Boukili pointed me to an excellent piece by the BBC on the difficulties faced by single mothers in Morocco as a result of social ostracism. While this piece focused particularly on the suffering of the mothers, the suffering of their children is often even more compelling. A double standard for male and female sexuality is by no means unique to Morocco, but its consequences for Morocco are starkly demonstrated here.

One of Morocco's most charming and elegant bloggers, Maryam Montague of My Marrakesh, has a write-up in Time.com, in which she extols the beauties of Chefchaouen, Fez, and, yes, Marrakesh.

The Washington Post reports that Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohammed will be released to the custody of Great Britain. Morocco and the United States deny allegations that Mohammed was tortured in Morocco at the behest of the United States, but U.S. insistence that Great Britain seal all records related to torture and its admission that allegations of a dirty bomb plot were based on "false confessions" suggest otherwise.

When Eric Holder recently caused a stir by proclaiming us a "nation of cowards" for refusing to speak candidly about race, he was only half right. The real reason we are a nation of cowards is that we have let a fear-mongering administration herd us like sheep into abandoning our most basic Constitutional and humanitarian principles.