It’s like all the stars aligned to try and help make decriminalization of cannabis in Lebanon finally a reality. Samir Hammoud’s circular to not prosecute drug users, McKinsey’s government-sanctioned study that recommended Lebanon decriminalize cannabis and lastly, many major politicians in Lebanon jumping in front of cameras to voice their support for legalization of cannabis cultivation.
After so many years of lobbying and campaigning for this, it’s an exciting time where the rest of the country finally realizes the error of their ways when it comes to the failed drug enforcement policies in Lebanon. After so many lives ruined, futures aborted and physical and psychological trauma, it might not just be decriminalized, but legal to export for medical reasons too.
BUT
Remember, these are the same politicians. The same ones that have been benefiting from all the terror caused by the aggressive campaign to hunt down kids smoking pot, for bribes of course. They even used it as an excuse to lock up activists in the 2015 uprising after the garbage crisis hit its peak.
A real risk I’m worried about is that these cash-obsessed politicians will find a way to legalize them selling and exporting it, but somehow leave it a crime to use this plant indigenous to Lebanon, by the Lebanese themselves.
They’d do it, they don’t give two shits about the thousands of young men and women arrested every year, they just want to make more money. So we need to have our eyes peeled, and plead the case that the money will not only come from selling our hash abroad, but that millions of dollars will be saved if we stop hunting down and ruining the lives and futures of our youth.
A university sophomore that got caught and tortured, might have started the next big production house, if only he didn’t have that black dot on his record and got scarred psychologically by the harrowing experience that is detention in Lebanon. A young woman who spent 4 nights in jail for being in the same car with someone who had a tiny amount of hash on them, will probably take the first plane out of this country instead of launch her idea for the next big fintech startup right here in Lebanon. Imagine the money we’d save from all the driving around and incarceration and paperwork generated over a bunch of people who did nothing but smoke up in the past few months…
So, Lebanese politicians, please have the decency to end the suffering of your constituents, as you draw plans to make even more money from them. It’s ok if you stop arresting people for smoking the same plant you’re preparing to turn into profit for your pockets.
That’s the deal we propose: stop arresting and criminalizing the use of cannabis, if you plan on legally making money from it. That way, you guys can make money, and citizens’ lives stop getting ruined too! Win-Win if I ever saw one.
I know that most of the news we get in Lebanon, is depressing and hope-killing. But last night, while I was working late, I got a call that made me jump up and down with happiness, then sit down and silently contemplate what it means for Lebanon, and especially its embattled youth.
What is it
Today, Judge Samir Hammoud issued a circular, which is binding, to all district attorneys in Lebanon, ordering them to not prosecute drug users caught in Lebanon anymore. So, it’s not just weed, but all drug use offenses.
This is nothing new, this is the actual law in Lebanon, where users should be referred to the “Addiction Committee” instead of arrested and prosecuted. However, for some reason, only 3% of all cases since this law was enacted were actually referred to this committee.
With this circular, this means that it’s no longer individual judges who decide if they let users go to this committee, the law dictates it, and this order reiterates that in a binding fashion that security forces can no longer hinder or dispute.
This is huge news, and you must inform yourselves and those you care about as soon as possible. If you ever fall into the hell that is being arrested by Lebanon’s drug enforcement, make sure you know your rights, and that your loved ones know and follow it up to make sure no one robs you of your liberty and dignity for absolutely no good reason.
Be Careful Though
You might no longer get prosecuted for using drugs, but for now, it’s still a crime. In other words, you can still get arrested for it, and you will have to undergo an investigation. This means you can spend up to 4 days in custody, before being released, which is 48 hours for “investigation” which can be renewed once, totalling 4 days (more if you’re caught on a Friday, given the weekends don’t count, which is why big drug crackdowns always seem to happen before the weekend, or before national holidays, to maximize the time held in custody, to shake out a bribe).
This news might be great for most of you, but it’s horrible news for all the corrupt people in our government and security forces. Taking bribes for arresting people was a massive, multi-million-dollar-a-year industry. So, this puts a huge stick in the bike wheel of people making a thousand, two thousand or three thousand per case (with more than 3000 a year), to release arrested users before they get to see a judge.
No one gives up that kind of money-making scheme lightly, and some drug enforcement people will be extra malicious in how they try to entrap innocent users.
I’m saying this so you all stay careful. More so now, because even if the law is on taxpayers’ side, we all know how Lebanon’s corrupt system, without any accountability, can backfire and cause hell for you, your family and your friends.
However, this time all eyes are on this matter, and some great cops in drug enforcement are on the people’s side now in fighting this endemic corruption destroying so many lives. Also, people like Skoun have their eyes peeled, and you can let them know when the worst happens to you or someone you know, to make sure no one takes advantage of that anymore
One step closer to decriminalization
Today, the biggest hurdle on the path to decriminalization, and maybe even legalization, has been rendered obsolete. People always used the excuse “hey, that’s the law, we’re just executing it”. Funny they execute that, but don’t enforce decisions to stop new resorts occupying public beaches, or any of the many actual crimes that stay unhindered by the government…
Anyway, the law is finally on citizens’ side, and this means we are a few steps closer to a time where weed is no longer criminalized in Lebanon. Where users don’t even get arrested. Maybe even regulate and tax it, like we do for alcohol and tobacco.
A few words to wrap up
Don’t let this victory make you less wary and careful. Be smart, always be paranoid and never let your guard down. This hurts the bottom line of the most corrupt individuals in Lebanon, so expect a vicious push-back from them, and even bolder attempts to entrap citizens and taxpayers so they can still make money off of your plight and trauma.
But, while you should remain careful and attentive, you should also celebrate this sweet, sweet victory. It’s quite a feeling when after years of work and hope, you get some vindication and a big step closer to a more just and fair country, that doesn’t cannibalize its youth to make a quick buck off their desperation and terror.
I’d like to thank and salute my good friends with beautiful minds and the kindest hearts at SKOUN for the amazing work they’ve been doing over the years, work which turned this once far-fetched dream into a reality today. The country owes you for this great service, and is supporting you to keep marching forward and achieve even more victories on this perilous, difficult road to reform the misinterpreted laws that cause so much pain, loss and terror every single day for thousands upon thousands of innocent people.
Congratulations Lebanon, and thank you to everyone who believed in this, and spoke up against the tyranny. Every little comment on the heartbreaking ISF posts about busting kids for half a joint, helped more than you know ❤
These pictures were taken moments ago by my good friend and LBCI reporter Lea Fayad in front of the Holiday Beach resort, right next to where Nahr El Kalb pours into the sea.
Last week, the current government decided to expand the current haphazard landfills in Costa Bravo (right next to the airport runways) and the area stretching from Karantina to Citymall, covering the two sides of Beirut’s coast with mountains of garbage that has been spilling into the sea for years, and in fact decades.
The place where some of you post Instagram photos in your swimsuits every summer, looks like a veritable landfill of mainly plastic, the stuff that floats when the waves hit those disastrous landfills this genius government not only erected, but is seeking to expand…
I guess they are doing this on purpose, to twist our arm and force us to accept the absurd incinerators plan, given it will rake in good money for those in power.
Part of the fault is on us, for using so much single-use plastic. The big part of the blame though, is on the consecutive governments, whose solution was either to burn the garbage, or simply dump it into the Mediterranean Sea.
This is why we need to elect the current MPs out of office in May, and get people who put our health and the environment before their quarterly profits from crooked, corrupt deals to make even more money than they used to from our solid waste.
Shame on the Lebanese government. Our air, our water, our soil, our food, everything is turning toxic, when the solutions are much simpler, when we can compost and recycle 77% of our solid waste, why the fuck are we throwing it in the sea?! It’s kinda sad that the infamous, cancer-causing Zouk powerplant is in the background of this frame… Makes the image look like post-apocalyptic hell-hole. But hey, the movie Beirut is painting a wrong picture, and that’s what we should be concerned about, right?
With all the toxic rhetoric in the past few weeks, the major missing ingredient was actual numbers and solid facts.
Below, I’ve embedded 33 facts published as part of the effort by professor Nasser Yassin as part of the #AUB4Refugees “Fact of the Day” initiative. You can find a lot more here.
Some facts are heartbreaking and disheartening, but others are also very enlightening and contradict the false information pushed by Lebanese politicians to pit Lebanese host communities, against Syrian refugees, instead of against their corrupt politicians.
Inform yourselves, and act accordingly. The refugee crisis is the worst one to hit the world in our lifetimes, and it’s extremely hard to turn the tragedy and conflict into something manageable and positive in the long run.
What’s certain, is that violence and hatred will not solve anything, and with the fighting winding down in Syria, many refugees are already leaving, with others packing up and getting ready to go back to their destroyed towns and homes.
In an ideal world, Lebanon’s host communities would get funding for much-needed infrastructure projects, like roads, electricity, public transport, health and environmental services, which working-age refugees could voluntarily execute with the money they make helping them restart their shattered lives at home, and their presence in Lebanon leaving a positive impact that our own Lebanese government has been unable to do for the past 4 decades.
Please calm down. Violence is not the answer, and the dire effects of the crisis is putting strain on the entire world, and our region and country especially. Finding solutions that will benefit both sides can happen, and is happening in many instances. Picking fights and letting sectarian and xenophobic urges get the best of us will do nothing but plunge us into worse conditions, and push more people into the arms of extremism, instead of away from it.
The last few days’ worrying deterioration of the conversation with regards to refugees and their host communities, has successfully shifted the focus from the crimes Lebanese politicians are trying to commit against Lebanese taxpayers.
Earlier this year, the corrupt politicians tried to jam a savage tax hike down our throats, while giving themselves and their buddies tax breaks and forgiving fines and debts they owe to the Lebanese people.
Back then, we went down to the streets and forced them to pull this piece of legislation. The president suspended parliament for a month, and they scurried to come up with an electoral law that guarantees they won’t get decimated next elections.
However, as expected, they’re trying to jam the tax hike again, and thought none of us would notice because we’d be too busy with the toxic discussions in the aftermath of the incident in Aarsal and talk of an upcoming military operation to rid the border area of armed extremist groups still hunkered down in Aarsal’s hinterlands since 2013.
Please, don’t buy into the politicians’ rhetoric ahead of the elections. They are trying to distract you with fiery remarks that don’t lead to any viable solution, so you’d be too busy arguing with each other to notice they’re doing backroom deals at your expense.
Tomorrow afternoon, 5PM, we are going down to the streets to protest the tax hike. Protests are in Riad El Solh, next to the entrance to the parliament where they will try to pass this savage tax hike, instead of reform and stop wasting our tax liras.
Focus, because like we stopped it the first time they tried, we’re gonna stop it this time too. And to the politicians, I say shame on you for threatening the security and stability of Lebanon, so that you can distract your constituents ahead of elections… Elections are coming, we will not forget and we will not forgive at the ballot box anyone who is colluding to pass this disgraceful tax increase while they think we aren’t watching.
Remember a couple of months ago, when we went down to protest the tax hike, and the president decided to suspend parliament for a month? The result was the less-than-ideal, tailor-made, gerrymandered new electoral law. Apart from that though, our politicians thought we’d lose focus and interest and that they can reintroduce their savage tax hike again when taxpayers had calmed down.
The Leaked Agenda
By now, all of you probably saw the leaked agenda of the upcoming two parliamentary sessions. The first item is the many years overdue wage increase for many public and private employees in Lebanon. The second, a series of savage tax hikes from those same people, and the rest of Lebanon’s taxpayers.
In other words, Lebanon’s politicians are doing nothing to stop corruption, wasteful spending and outright theft of public money and tax breaks and loopholes for them and their buddies. However, they’re putting on a PR stunt of increasing wages slightly, while hiking up taxes across the board.
What’s funny is how absurd the agenda is. Item 5 is “protection of animals” (how heartwarming). Item 3 is extradition of persons between Lebanon and Russia (why the fuck?)
The other two pages of the agenda are below:
So, prepare yourselves this week for massive protests to stop this disgusting attempt by Lebanon’s politicians to shove new taxes down our throat, when growth in the first 6 months of this year did not exceed 1%, unemployment has reached an unprecedented 30% and the government’s proposed budget is more like a chicken with its legs dipped in paint walking around randomly: no direction, no vision, no reform.
It’s sad that our corrupt leaders have become so predictable. I remember when we heard the news of the president suspending parliament for a month while protesting in the Central District, we all thought, they’ll just wait a little bit and try to pass it without us noticing. Well, we did, and your dirty tricks have become all too familiar.
A note to all the groups organizing next week’s protests: do it in the late afternoon, when the heat wave is more bearable and most people get off work.
We will stop these taxes again. Fund the wage hike by cutting your tax breaks and paying for all the crimes against Lebanese taxpayers, like occupying public beaches while paying no penalty or tax to reimburse Lebanon’s taxpayers.
Now, the below is a post I wrote in February 2016 when I went up to visit EDZ and meet the team behind it. I’ve updated some things, and you can find the original here.
How EDZ Works
How embarrassing is it that in 2017 and many billions of dollars later, we still don’t have electricity 24 hours a day? I guess that’s why Electricite de Zahle (EDZ) and what they’ve managed to pull off in their 250 square kilometer area of operations, was so incredibly exciting and rekindled some hope in issues it seems we’ve all collectively given up on for being almost insurmountable thanks to the world’s worst, most corrupt politicians.
with EDZ chief Assaad Nakad
What’s EDZ?
EDZ is a private company founded in the 1920s. It holds a concession to fulfil the electricity needs of the Central Bekaa. Originally, it both produced and distributed electricity, however, in 1969 Electricite du Liban (EDL) requested that EDZ stop increasing its capacity and basically restricted it to just distributing it. The EDL move back then though, wasn’t sinister in nature, in fact, before the war, EDL was producing a surplus of electricity, which is why this request was made and the contract signed back then.
That surplus is no longer the case though, and hasn’t been for a very, very long time. Longer than most of you reading these have been alive…
The 24-Hour Solution Breakdown
Given that the original contract stipulates EDL has to meet electricity needs of the region, EDZ has been trying for years to compensate for the severe shortages of EDL’s power production. It’s estimated that 1500MW are what EDL provides, when the demand is just a little over 3200MW. This translates to anywhere between 12 and 18 hours of no power a day.
The solution was a tricky one, and as Mr Nakad explained his line of thought, I loved how carefully it had been set up to ensure EDZ can fulfil its promise, while not breaking the law or ruffling too many political feathers by the time customers start feeling the change. Then, as expected, it would be too late for the politicians and moteur cartels to reverse the progress made.
EDZ’s concession is scheduled to end in 2018 if there’s no extension, which means the company and all its facilities will be handed to EDL free of charge. That was when I started to become horrified, hearing that all the progress made might have to be handed back to EDL, that certainly would spell doom for any successful project, given EDL’s horrifying 40+ year history of embezzling our taxes for atrocious coverage. So, I sure hope they extend beyond 2018!
But, building a power plant themselves with possibly only few years on the clock left (and not enough time to at least pay off the cost of the plant from the revenues generated from customers), didn’t make economic sense, especially when most of Lebanon’s major banks refused to help with funding that endeavor (excpet Byblos Bank). That’s when EDZ partnered up with Aggreko, a British company that specializes in temporary power supply with a 2-year lease to supply Zahle with the rest of the power it needs.
The power plant features 60 diesel oil generators running at optimal capacity that can easily be altered based on the demand. Each is fitted with filters and noise cancelling structures to make sure pollution is kept to a minimum, and the entire is less noisy than a busy restaurant at lunch. (As a person who lives in the Zouk area, I can always hear the noises from the notorious power plant, sometimes waking me up at night when it’s “clearing the smoke towers” which, despite allegedly being fitted with filters, still spew toxic sludge and smog pushing everyone here closer to a painful death by garbage fires and the Zouk power plant like some post-apocalyptic distopia movie.)
I was also surprised by the stringent safety procedures and protocols in place, something kind of out of place in Lebanon, where safety is often a joke and work is usually done ad-hoc, even in essential facilities like power plants.
So, basically EDZ buys energy from EDL that is fed into the EDZ grid, and the second EDL stops supplying every day, EDZ maintains the power supply constant with its own generators for most of the hours in a day. This means that for a customer, the electricity never cuts, even for those few seconds in between most of us start cussing at because the router is rebooting and ruined that download you’ve been waiting hours to finish. And more importantly, they pay one bill that is 35–40% cheaper overall. That’s because EDZ’s tariff is based on how many hours EDL fails to provide electricity and the price of diesel oil, unlike the “moteurs” local generators that have refused to lower prices even though diesel is down more than 60% from its peak when their tariffs were set.
Moteurs Cartels
Who doesn’t remember the barbaric savages foaming at the mouth while shooting at transformers, EDZ facilities and workers last year because their polluting, overpriced and impractical “services” were being made obsolete by a better, cheaper and less-polluting option. Who can forget how the police sat cross-armed and did nothing about it?
Nakad and his family were constantly harassed and threatened, and you get a feeling of how bad it got by how secured the power plant is. I joked with Jimmy “this looks more like a US military base”, and that was true, especially when it coms to safety and security procedures. That kinda shows you how desperate corrupt people would go to protect their embezzlement of people’s money because of the public sector in Lebanon failing miserably. It also shows how sticking with your plan and not succumbing threats can pay off if you stick to it and help make people’s live better, or at least, less bad.
EDZ is far less extreme in their dislike of the generator owners than I am, and in making sure they don’t force anything upon the people living in their area of operations, they install, free of charge upon request, special switches that allow you to remain with your local moteurs and EDL only, without EDZ’s supply. However, a measly 15 out of 55,000+ households opted for that option (probably those that own the moteurs, hahahaha).
At the end of the day, folks realize paying a cheaper single bill for continuous power supply was awesome and the violence and crimes by the moteur cartels subsided after virtually everyone abandoned them. It seems the cartels didn’t mind that too much though, given how experienced they are in the dirty moteur business (since Zahle area has been experiencing shortages since the 70s) they have expanded to many other areas in Lebanon, and their business of profiting off of people’s suffering for an unfairly high price, sadly continues outside of EDZ’s area of operations.
Plans for Jbeil? Tripoli?
After the resounding success of EDZ, many folks started talking about Jbeil or Tripoli following in the footsteps of EDZ. I asked Mr. Nakad about that, and if he was at all involved. That’s when he explained there are several obstacles to that, first of which is EDL.
In Zahle, the electrical infrastructure was built and is owned by EDZ. Given the concession, they don’t need EDL’s permission to use their own network. They also don’t need to refrain from generating power too, given EDL broke its commitment in the contract to provide 24h power. Unfortunately, most of Lebanon’s electrical infrastructure (poles, lines, transformers, etc.) are owned by EDL, and given its track record and an administration that is as corrupt and un-reformable as Ogero, that happening is very unlikely without actually breaking the law and using the EDL lines and infrastructure to supply electricity generated by companies or individuals like EDZ.
Tripoli does have a company with a concession similar to EDZ, but it also expires soon. So, in terms of most probably able to imitate Zahle’s success story, Lebanon’s second city, Tripoli, is best poised to finally enter the 21st century in Lebanon that includes 24h electricity like virtually ever other inhabited place on the planet (even in a remote Nepalese village in the Himalayas I stayed in where there wasn’t even a paved road…)
All in All
It is extremely encouraging to see such an ambitious project being undertaken and succeed despite all the security and corruption hurdles it faced. It’s rare to see a problem actually fixed in Lebanon, whether it’s a vacant presidential seat or more than 6 months of drowning in garbage in the darkness. EDZ represents hope in changing stuff for the better without waiting for the crippled, illegitimate government to do something about it, which we all know it won’t unless it involves the politicians making a cut, regardless if taxpayers get what they’re being overcharged and overtaxed for.
I really hope the same can be replicated in different parts of Lebanon, both in terms of power supply and other basic necessities (such as waste management perhaps, as I have called for since August 2014)
This also puts to rest the unfounded fears of “privatization” in Lebanon, which usually just means unfair and inefficient monopolies and oligopolies (like our telecom sector), since the customer has the choice to either subscribe to EDZ or one of the other options and is not being forced to pay for something they didn’t choose to be part of. It also shows how IPPs (Independent Power Producers) can help solve the electricity issue once and for all in an ISO-certified manner that is cheaper for the consumer overall.
The question that remains is, will EDL remain keeping the millions of Lebanese people hostage so they can protect their concession while failing to deliver? And will the moteur cartels always be a dangerous and violent obstacle to progress from IPPs and other non-governmental entities that seek to fix this country’s woes, especially the power cuts, which even refugees running away from war have had difficulty getting accustomed to…
I’d like to thank Assaad and Zeina Nakad for their insight, time and hospitality, and Naji Jreissati for explaining more about the technical side of the operation. And of course, Jimmy Ghazal for helping set this field visit up and taking awesome shots of it!
The country has been buzzing with the arrest of Egypt-based Syrian singer Asala at the airport for possession of drugs this week. I will not go into the details of what happened, I don’t even know who she is or that she’s famous.
What happened is that she was arrested at the airport for possession of drugs. A few hours later, she was released from custody at the airport after police from the Hbeich precinct interrogated her, and the online Lebanese community went haywire with conspiracy theories.
This is How the Law Should Work
In Lebanon, drug users that are arrested can ask for treatment at the police precinct. The ISF then has to immediately refer them to something called the Addiction Committee. This committee then assesses each case and decides the appropriate treatment. Some people might go get a detox center, others to out-patient rehab centers like Skoun, or to in-patient ones like Oum El Nour.
The point is, those that want to seek treatment are no longer arrested, and released from custody. Asala got that. The other 3599 people that will be arrested this year, probably won’t.
This “wasta” for a star showed us how the law should actually work. However, if you’re a university student caught smoking a joint, or just arousing suspicion you might smoke, you would spend days and weeks before seeing a judge in sub-human detention conditions.
Status of the Addiction Committee
In 2013, the committee was finally appointed, years after the Lebanese parliament ratified the law. Since then, it meets monthly and studies cases. Several people since 2013 have been released from custody, and their records were kept clean after showing intent to get treated.
However, only 3% of total arrests since 2013 actually got to the Addictions Committee. It’s partly because most people don’t even know that’s their right. Another major reason is that most judges outside of Beirut and Mount Lebanon don’t agree on transferring cases of drug users to the committee, which is a shame on Lebanon’s human rights record.
This is unacceptable, yet understandable in Lebanon. The business of catching pot smokers and blackmailing them with bribes is a lucrative one, and one few people dare speak out against.
There is no denying it is a major issue, especially for Lebanon’s youth, who spend years in court for a victimless act, that is not really a crime, while violent thugs roam the streets unchecked, and instead of doing something about it, the Lebanese government just encourages reinstating the death penalty… As if they’d let their own thugs get executed, the same thugs that never go to jail, pay a fine or register their cars. Please…
It’s Time for Change
It’s 2017. I partnered up with Skoun for their #SupportDontPunish campaign. It’s time for change, especially since elections are coming up. There is absolutely no excuse to keep drug policies that are exponentially worse than the adverse effects of addiction. Drugs are a public health issue, not a criminal one. The ones in jail should be the killers of people like Eliane Safatly, who escaped jail because of negligence (or was it?) by the security forces overseeing his arrest and loopholes in our ancient judicial system that relies on faxes and snail mail. The ones in jail shouldn’t be 3500+ young men and women every year. Khlosna ba2a.
Help Skoun advocate for policy change, and help those who need treatment to overcome their addictions.
These are the numbers for 2015, from the drug enforcement bureau in Lebanon. I’ve been trying to get the broken down stats for 2016, but with no luck. I can confirm that the number of arrests have spiked significantly in 2016, since between 2011 and 2015, average arrests per year were 2500–2700. In 2016, they were well over 3500 (3669 to be exact).
Source: Drug Enforcement Bureau, Lebanon — 2015
Analysis
58% of those arrested were for hashish. That’s almost 1600 people in 2015. That’s four people every day. That’s one young man or woman every six hours throughout the year. If we assume the percentage of those arrested for weed/hash is still the same for 2016, that’s 2100 people. 6 people every day. One person every 4 hours.
Despite the general misconception that less people are being caught, the numbers obviously point otherwise. This wrong idea might be due to the government not acting much against the growers and big-time dealers, citing the excuse of fighting terrorism and being too busy to crack down on the drug trade.
If that’s true however, that begs the question how did they arrest almost 1000 extra users last year? Was the threat of terrorism non-existent when they’re waiting for clubbers outside clubs to strip-search them in public?
The Real Reason
It makes them a lot of money. Busting hashish smokers is easy, and the process is such a traumatic one, that people would do and pay anything to avoid the inhumane and brutal treatment when you get arrested. Just the social stigma itself would be enough for any law-abiding citizen to seek the power of the wasta or bribe.
Drug users are also defenseless. They’re young, unarmed, peaceful. They’re the perfect prey for crooked law enforcement. Prey that will not fight back like the big time dealers and growers.
The Government Needs to Act
They all talk about how they want to decriminalize and legalize marijuana and hashish. However, they’re all part of the police state system that’s ruining the lives of thousands of young Lebanese each year. At a time when big swathes of the world have decriminalized, or even legalized the consumption of hashish.
The problem with this topic, is most people think of the economic value of “exporting” the infamously good Lebanese product. That’s not the point. How can you export something and make money off of it legally if your own citizens are hunted down like terror suspects for consuming it?
The money being made by cartels and political parties backing them, can go to the government’s coffers. Instead of absurd tax hikes on Lebanon’s non-existent middle class and overwhelming majority working class, as the politicians fix deals for electricity ships and other overt theft and spending of public money for commissions and kickbacks…
If this is the government of change and reform, where the taxpayer has rights and dignity, this is the first step, and it is an easy one. An easy one that will have a lot of benefits, both economically, politically, socially and security-wise.
The Goods
Less people will be spending time in jail and with black dots on their records. This means more people who can get employed, start businesses, vote and run for elections.
Less money will be made by the drug lords that shoot up innocent tax payers, like this week in Zahle and many other instances.
More taxes will mean the budget won’t need us to add taxes on law-abiding citizens.
Increase in tourism will make up for the lost tourism because of the GCC countries boycott of Lebanon for political reasons. It will attract young people from around the world who would love to try Lebanon’s famous hash while experiencing the awesome nature, clubbing and food Lebanon has to offer, minus the risk of jail and deportation a few dozen foreigners face each year because of smoking hash.
Human rights will be respected in the country that helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The biggest crime since the early 1990s is the hell brought down upon Lebanon’s youth, but one wrought with so much stigma, that no one talks about it. No one talks about it, but everyone knows someone arrested or was arrested themselves, but because of the shame, no one speaks out.
The Choice
Decriminalizing marijuana needs to be on the election platforms for the upcoming elections. This is a subject directly affecting a big part of Lebanese society that no one seems to be willing to address, apart from a wasta on the down-low or protection for dealers and growers under their patronage.
Will Lebanon’s government keep hunting down and entrapping innocent, young tax payers while the dealers roam free? Or will Lebanon be progressive enough to end this witch hunt and focus on more important things that actually hurt the country, like corruption, violent crime and terrorism?
We’re the 3rd biggest hash producers after Afghanistan and Morccco. It’s time we enjoy the benefits of this plant, and reduce the exponentially more harmful effects of legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco…
Gino's Blog 