Lebanon: the potential of cannabis to revitalize the economy

In an effort to revive its economy, Lebanon has enlisted the firm McKinsey to develop a stimulus plan, one of whose proposals is to expand the cultivation and export of Lebanese medical cannabis.

Economic Crisis

Lebanon is in the midst of a major economic crisis, having accumulated a debt equivalent to 150% of its GDP. The IMF issued a statement on June 22 calling on Lebanon to undertake «immediate and substantial» fiscal adjustment to improve the sustainability of its public debt, which ranks third in the world behind Japan and Greece. Lebanon's Economy has been hit hard by the war with its neighbor Syria, which has led to a sharp decline in tourism from the Gulf and further weakened the high-end real estate sector, two major sectors of the Lebanese economy whose decline has caused the country’s annual growth rate to fall from 8-10% to 1-2%.

The Potential of Lebanese Cannabis

Lebanon is known for its large illegal cannabis farms, most of which is located in a region of the country controlled by Hezbollah, an Islamist organization that has both a political wing with seats in the Lebanese parliament and a paramilitary wing. The profits from the trafficking therefore elude the state. The McKinsey recovery plan therefore proposes to legalize cultivation illegal, particularly for medical exports.

According to the Minister of the Economy, «the quality we have is among the best in the world,» to which he added that this market could bring in up to a billion dollars. In his 2017 World Drug Report, the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) ranked Lebanon fourth in global cannabis cultivation, behind Morocco, Mexico, and Nigeria, despite its small land area. Despite the official zero-tolerance policy, the Lebanese cannabis is making good headway in international trade, all the way to Amsterdam and beyond.

Economy Minister Raed Khoury, who has publicly expressed his support for the changes proposed by McKinsey, now intends to regulate this industry and focus it on medical exports, as part of a national effort to combat poverty and corruption.